< nr. 24 >

Lounge Chair Wood (LCW)

by Charles en Ray Eames
Label: Vitra / Herman Miller

Year: 1945

Charles and Ray Eames spent years looking for innovative ways in which to adapt three-dimensionally formed plywood most optimally to the shape of the body . At first, for splints and stretchers during the second World War and later on for children’s furniture and the eventual LCW-series. The Lounge Chair Wood, of which the seat, backrest and the undercarriage are made of plywood, is perhaps their best product in this field.

Prototypes of the chair were first seen at the exhibition ‘New Furniture by Charles Eames’ in 1946 in the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York. These were born out of the idea to ‘get the most of the best for the least to the largest possible audience’ (Design van de 20e Eeuw, Charlotte & Peter Fiell). They were produced briefly by the Evans Products Company, of which Eames was director, and from 1949 by Herman Miller and later by Vitra in Europe.

The chair is currently available with upholstery from cowhide, as had already been suggested at its introduction in 1946.