After almost 200 years, bentwood continues to wiggle into modern design with innovative products from the world’s top designers and most respected manufacturers.
By Caroline Kooshoian
31 January 2005
Jeremy Edwards' Loop chair and Plank's Stella stools redefine and break the boundaries of classic bentwood styles.
This Mobican bedroom set offers curves everywhere you want to see them--the bed, the mirror and even where you keep your clothes.
Whether they make chairs or lamps or little doghouses, all designers reach for the same goal—to create something new. They court trends in colors, shapes and materials the way movie stars flock to fashion. It’s not enough to be first. To really matter, to create a kind of Karim Rashid “I want to change the world” impact, a great modern design has to be innovative, beautiful, and have purpose. As in fashion, trends in furniture are lucky to be cyclical and likely to be short-lived.
But one trend, bentwood, has bucked the system. It hasn’t been new since the 18th century’s Windsor Chairs, but today bentwood maintains the same fresh, clean, modern look as it did when it was first discovered, in the 1830s. Amid a flurry of technological advancements and invention of materials that would seem to steer designers more toward polymers, foams, or recycled tires than to a material style about two centuries old, bentwood continues to show up in cutting edge showrooms and furniture trade shows from Cologne to Canada.
Over the years the methods of creating bentwood furniture have changed. Bending solid wood has given way to molding plywood, but the aesthetics have remained the same. From Thonet’s ubiquitous Chair Model 14 (the bentwood classic that for decades filled malt shops and cafes worldwide) to Alvar Aalto’s coveted Paimio Chair (developed for a tuberculosis sanatorium, the shape of the chair allowed movement and was angled to help patients breathe more easily), and the Eames’ DCW side chairs (the elegant and oft-copied molded plywood, mass market dining chair), designers continue to push the boundaries of bentwood. Frank Gehry came up with a pliable, light version of thin laminated, woven strips. Some companies use a vacuum mold that sucks the wood into shape. Others shape their wood by hitting it with a series of rays similar to a microwave.
Thonet Model 14, the classic bentwood original you probably sat in at one time or another.
Hans J. Wegner's CH-20 Elbow Chair looks just as fresh and new as it did when he designed it, in 1956.
Charles and Ray Eames's DCW dining chair, a tour de force of molded plywood for which they are still admired.
Whatever the method, the look of bentwood remains de novo. According to Sari Holopainen, Export Manager for Artek, the Finnish company Alvar Aalto founded in 1935, continued interest in bentwood is aligned with the timeless quality of Scandinavian designs, which are characterized by clean-lined, functional, simplified beauty and a natural, environmental aspect. These qualities underscore the appeal of wood over more modern alternatives like plastics or steel, which don’t harness the comforting natural look of wood nor its symbolism for the outdoors.
Sally Hoban, author of "Collecting Modern Design," attributes the continued popularity of bentwood to its endless applications. “Bentwood, by the nature of its production--layered or veneered wood made malleable through mechanical or chemical methods--can be adapted into new shapes and styles, making it extremely suitable for experimentation and imaginative ideas,” says Hoban.
Looking at products debuted so far in 2005, it appears Hoban’s right. Vacuumed, microwaved or steamed, bentwood has wiggled into innovative products from the world’s top designers and most respected manufacturers.
At the International Furniture Fair IMM Cologne in January, several show hits embodied the organic forms and simple beauty of bentwood. Jeremy Edwards debuted his Loop chair to rave reviews the chair could actually respond to. Made from steel and bowed plywood strips, the Loop’s loops can be adjusted to face up, looking cheerful, or down, sad. Calligaris got kudos for its pared down bentwood chair, Shen CS/99. By Edi and Paolo Ciani, this stackable bent laminated wood seat with metal frame is available in veneers of natural oak, wenge, cherry, ebony, zebrano, canaletto nut or even painted white. For Aqus Furniture, Jenny Chen cut a delicate fold of bentwood with spoon-shaped negative spaces and added brushed stainless steel legs for an elegant dining chair that will make any daily-grind dinner of leftovers into a culinary coup. From the Italian firm Plank came a stool borne of extreme molded plywood experimentation that people can’t help yelling about. It’s called Stella and this stool’s seat is a thin, shallow bowl suspended on spidery metal legs. From the Danish design house Carl Hansen came a future classic from Scandinavian design guru Hans J. Wegner. Designed in 1956, the wooden stackable CH-20 Elbow Chair has a deep curve to support the back and enough style to stay new for at least another 50 years.
The Canadian Home Furnishings Market had its fair share of breakthrough bentwood designs, too. Mobican featured delicately curved headboards on low-slung platform beds of zen-like design. Laurier softened its tough titanium Infini-T finishes with sloping curves in bedroom sets. Their heavier pieces like TV units and queen-sized beds seemed to float on air on delicate supports of down-turned planks. Understated curves were the essence of Huppé’s Milano bedroom collection, as well. A tall dresser’s top convex curve added a sophisticated highlight echoed in the bed and tables in the rest of the collection.
As the year progresses and designers the world over stretch their imaginations and indulge their creativity, they’re sure to invent even more ways to bend, mold and curve wood into imaginative, experimental pieces with fresh looks that withstand time.
Caroline Kooshoian is an editor for Pure Contemporary.
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