More than just a surface to sit on, these modern chair designs are (sometimes literally) works of art, sculptural yet functional, from a flat-looking canvas you can actually sit on to a series of chairs that slide inside each other, inception-style. Customize a chair’s look with removable graphic panels, hook two high-backed seats together to make a room-within-a-room, or scare your guests with hanging chairs that mimic beasts of the deep sea.
Monster Chairs Might Eat You
Rest inside the mouth of a sea beast, real or mythical, in this series of fun and frightening handmade chairs by Cape Town artist Porky Hefer.
A Painting You Can Sit In
Hung flat on a wall, these canvases look like nothing more than two-dimensional paintings. But pull them down, lean them against the wall and take a seat, and you’ll find that they are surprisingly up to the task. These lightweight furniture pieces by YOY design studio are made of wood, aluminum and stretched elastic canvas.
Home Office in a Chair
If you’re the type who works from home but isn’t into sitting at a conventional desk, the Four Works Armchair can meet all of your needs. A seat is embedded within a bookcase-like base that also offers a light, cupholder, power outlets, storage and a laptop platform.
Inception Chair
Ten interlocking chairs ranging from adult to child size fit within a single frame in this chair by Vivian Chiu, inspired by the dream-within-a-dream concept of the movie Inception.
Rhinoceros Beetle Chair
Adding to a collection of realistic animal-shaped chairs rendered in matte black, Maximo Riera presents The Beetle Chair, which is only recognizable as furniture when viewed from the back.
Customizable Layer Chair
Change the look of this chair with your mood simply by sliding a series of acrylic panels within the transparent frame. Layer Chair by Sohyun Yun comes with a set of interchangeable prints for the back and seat, allowing the user to create their own custom combinations.
Chair with Invisible Legs
From a distance, this chair looks like no more than a line mysteriously hovering above the ground. The Magic Chair by Davide Contiachieves the optical illusion of balance with the help of nearly-invisible transparent components contrasting with opaque black and white.
Chairs That Hold Hands
This set of chairs was designed to ‘hold hands’ so that two more more people can come together into a private group that’s completely walled off from prying eyes. With its high back and flexible arm panels, it turns a group of chairs into a room within a room.
Disappearing Chair
The Urban Philosophy Chair by Nissa Kinzhalina has a black line running only along a portion of the frame, the rest filled in with clear acrylic, so the bulk of it virtually disappears when viewed from most angles.
Constructing Memory Chair
This chair by Hui Chun Chen only becomes a chair when you make it one, pulling the strings to ‘activate’ it. You have to tighten the cords enough for it to stand up on its own, and then pull them taut around your body to maintain the chair’s structural integrity.
Breathing Chair
A block of foam collapses to cradle your body when you put your weight on it. Says designer Wu Yu-Ying of her inspiration, “One day I saw an image of the cross-section of a tree’s cambium. It was in a biology textbook and the image was magnified many times. The arrangement of the cells with their varying sizes looked so beautiful.”
Modern Peacock Chair
This modern spin on the classic ’70s peacock chair takes the biological inspiration just a bit further with a ‘feather’ span that reaches all the way to the floor on either side. Canadian design firm UUfiecreated the chair out of a single sheet of acrylic.
Rolling Bookshelf Chair
Take your own mini library with you from one room to the next with this rolling bookcase chair by Nils Holger Moormann, a lounger on wheels with built-in storage and even a reading lamp.
Curvy Wood Chair Packs Flat
Rising Chair’ by Robert van Embricqs starts off as a flat, seemingly solid piece of wood, but transforms into a curving seat shape when pulled out at both ends.
via – weburbanist
