The Knotted Chair by Dutch product and interior designer Marcel Wanders came into being during the Dry Tech project begun by the platform Droog Design in 1995 in collaboration with the aviation faculty at the Delft University of Technology. Wanders was invited to create a design utilising ultra-light materials and asked the Eurocarbon company in Sittard to produce an aramid fibre with a carbon fibre core, which he hand-knotted to create a net structure. The soft net is then infused with epoxy resin, left to harden hanging down, which sets the chair’s shape. This method harnesses the force of gravity to create the parabolic shape of the seat and back. The Knotted Chair weighs just 1.4 kg and reflects Wanders’ aim to create designs that appeal to users through a combination of familiar and unexpected aspects: the macramé technique, which uses knotting to create textiles, is well known, while the fabric’s delicate structure and material are quite surprising. The chair’s hand-made appearance is intended to give consumers the feeling that the chair is a unique object they will cherish for years; a form of sustainability for which Wanders has great respect. The chair was immediately an enormous success. When first presented at the Milan Design Week in 1996, a journalist for the Italian periodical Interni singled it out as the only fascinating new design to be exhibited. The chair became an icon of Dutch design and of a renewed international interest in craftsmanship in design.
Text: Ingeborg de Roode
