While studying sculpture at Konstfack – University College of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm, Caroline Schlyter was assigned to create a work referencing a letter. Inspired by the letter ‘h’, she created several small-scale models of a chair in different materials, followed by a first full-sized version in rolled steel in 1988. However, her goal was to make the chair out of a single three-metre-long piece of plywood. Since no manufacturer believed this to be possible, Schlyter made the first prototypes by hand at her school’s carpentry department, finally arriving at her desired shape in 1989: the Little h, a sculptural chair with graphic sharpness and a comfortable, elastic back. In 1990 her prototype was presented as one of the award-winning entries in the International Furniture Design Competition in Asahikawa, Japan, and afterwards was featured in several international design magazines. Forsnäs Form produced three limited-edition series of the Little h in 1991, 1996, and 2005. The company also made The h Family, a range of furniture designed in 1990 based on the Little h, starting with the table Trull in 1993.
Text: Cilla Robach
