HAY UCHIWA CHAIR

Uchiwa is a capacious armchair taking its soft and open shape from the eponymous traditional Japanese hand fan. Generous and inviting, Uchiwa’s hard plastic shell has  surprisingly soft down padding inside. New and familiar at once, the armchair comes in two upholstered versions; in soft down for a more domestic environment and in moulded foam for a more demanding contract space. The dramatic seat shell is upholstered. The legs are in natural or stained oak. The chair has an accompanying foot stool as a natural extension of its comfort.

The chair was influenced mainly by a visit from Rolf Hay to London. We found his enthusiasm and energy infectious and set to work straight after our meeting in Brawn Restaurant under our studio. The brief was quite clear. We had to make a lounge chair that is affordable and the rest was up to us. In a sense it was as free as any other project in creative terms, only we had to make a piece with economy of production in mind. Most of the work in an upholstered piece goes into the stitching, so we found a way to minimise this while coming up with an expressive gesture through clever pattern cutting.The chair took 7 months to develop.