© Chair 01, Essential History
The story of Chair 01 begins with respect for a typology—born in Denmark as early as the 1800s out of a desire for straightforward hospitality.
The story of Chair 01 begins with respect for a form, and a chair designed for a purpose. Often seen in auditoriums, churches, and other public spaces with large capacities in Denmark beginning as far back as the 1800s, the “slate chair” was designed with the practical need to accommodate a large number of people in mind. This chair was always simple and stackable out of necessity, and out of a desire for straightforward hospitality.
As this typology developed in Scandinavia from the 1930s to the 1960s, it followed the path of many other typologies in Danish furnishings designed for everyday use: as one form becomes more widely used, its elemental design is evolved and pared down based on its use. Another instance of this: modular shelving, as developed by Kim Richardt. The Shelf Library’s origins are humble. This decidedly-Scandinavian system has its roots in the local hardware stores of Denmark—now nearly a century ago. FRAMA’s system, designed by Kim Richardt in 2016, is a reinterpretation that maintains the timeless basis for the essential shelving concept at its core, with its details precisely fine-tuned and adapted.
In terms of Chair 01, this development was also spurred by new developments in production technique to create furniture that was functional and thoughtful, and with no ornamentation without purpose. In the 1940s and 50s, a growing trend among Scandinavian architects—and mid-century modern designers across Europe—was the drive to simplify, purify, and elevate traditional designs using new production techniques that hadn’t existed before. The result was furniture that was functional yet minimalist, with an almost industrial feel, stripped of unnecessary ornamentation. When it came time to design Chair 01, FRAMA Studio built off of this historic hospitality and evolution in Danish public seating design.
As one of FRAMA’s earliest designs, Chair 01 was designed initially for a restaurant in Copenhagen in 2018: so from its outset, the chair design was not only inspired by practical seating historically, but born out of a need for it in the present. The FRAMA design studio set out to craft something that felt familiar as well as modern. Oak can often feel traditional and conservative in this shape of seating, for example, while the warm brown birch of the Chair 01 feels lighter—whether as a chair, a stool, bar stool, or a bench. Another evolution in the series: the original color of the warm brown finish in the 01 Series was in a 10% darker tone.
Chair 01 and its family have become synonymous with FRAMA's design ideals, with fundamental seating, and with straightforward hospitality. Discover the evolution of one of FRAMA’s earliest designs.
