Currently exhibiting at Milan Design Week 2014, the one-piece cast aluminium Manta Ray seat by architect Zaha Hadid may look like some class of butt-cupping fetish chair but is in fact a minimalist dual armchair for two with built-in arm rests.
It’s all about the ergonomic use of surface area.
It would be wrong to find it in any way arousing.
Last night on the La Touche bridge, Portobello, Dublin 8.
(Thanks: Deirdre O’Sullivan)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rgr-s5u9PJg
The Gravity Balans chair (a mere €2,255) from Variér what sez:
The power nap is an invaluable instrument in your quest for productivity, boosting energy levels and recharging your brain. Float free of gravity and experience the ultimate power nap with the Gravity balans®. Fully reclined, the Gravity balans® elevates your legs above your heart, and rocks gently to the rhythm of your breathing, so you experience a liberating sense of weightlessness.
Until you’re inevitably tipped by a passing troll.
Photographer Michael Wolf’s shots of DIY seating ingeniously improvised by Chinese folk from reclaimed junk and knackered chairs, collected in his book ‘Sitting In China’.
The Elephant Chair by Maximo Riera:
…crafted “from compressed foam with an internal steel frame. The final object is enveloped in fine leather, allowing all the detail to be refined. Although not as heavy as an actual elephant, the chair weighs 160 kg.
No price available but Riera’s Octopus Chair went for $53,000.
Him and Her Chairs by designer Fabio Novembre: anatomically correct (unless of course your anatomy somehow diverges from the shapely template) and available in multiple colours from Casamania, from whose website the following utterly fabulous description is taken:
“Him & Her are born directly from the ideas behind the Panton Chair. An evolution of the hermaphroditic original, declined into the harmony of the two sexes. They assume sculpted forms like naked models of seduction…but they feel no shame.”
Now Bill. That was never from a standing position.
A decommissioned Martin Baker Mk6 ejector seat, originally used in a Royal Navy Buccaneer – now fitted with a stainless steel frame and for sale as an office chair – complete with original ‘chutes, harness and eject handles.
The Mk.6MSB was fitted to the Buccaneer jet used by both RAF and Royal Navy. This seat in particular was fitted to XV157 which flew first with the Royal Navy from ’66, including operating from the aircraft carrier HMS Eagle (where its was coded 107/E) and RAF squadrons from ’69. XV157 was sadly scrapped in ’91, at which point this seat was removed and converted to a training seat.
The ejector seat has been kept in its original authentic condition to preserve its’ history; parts are original to the chair, including straps, parachute, seat cushion and handles. Paintwork has been kept as the original. Rockets are present – including pitch rockets – minus cartridge and propellant.
By the look of it, you might have to sacrifice comfort for awesomeness but you can make an offer here, if you’re so inclined. You can bet it’s not cheap.
