Try to imagine the ideal room. What should be in it? Definitely a two or three seater sofa, also bookcases and perhaps a console for the giant screen and the home theater
But above all, it should have a piece of furniture that invites you to sit and rest, a seat of undoubted comfort just for you: that is, an armchair.
To all this, what exactly is an armchair? Why is it different from a chair or a sofa? Well, although both are cushioned and soft furniture, unlike a sofa, an armchair is a seat for a single person, and in contrast to a chair, it has armrests, that is, supports at the height of the elbows that meet various functions.
For example, the armrests take part of the weight of the body, which greatly reduces the load on the lower back. In addition, they serve as supports to stand up or sit carefully. Finally, the armrests also make it easier or more comfortable to hold books and tablets.
These are the main reasons why armchairs are so comfortable and so irresistible. They are designed to be very ergonomic.
As with all types of furniture, there are armchairs that, due to their exceptional design, their history or their implications, have become authentic icons of design and are capable of transforming and giving personality to entire spaces with their mere presence. In our opinion, the five most iconic armchairs in modern history are:
Few armchairs mark an era like this design from the Eames firm. The result of three years of development, it integrates the supreme comfort of the typical English club chair with the materials of its time, such as laminated woods and resins.
The result is this magnificent piece that just by looking at it exhorts you to take a seat and redefine your standards of “comfort”, especially if it is accompanied by its corresponding design ottoman and proportional dimensions.
From its creation this piece of furniture was an immediate success, a masterpiece made of laminated wood, leather and foam that impresses all who see it. He quickly became the archetypal chair of the successful and refined man.
Even today, for many young architects and designers the Eames armchair is an object of desire, and being able to purchase it marks a milestone in their career. And it is not for less, because its elegance and refinement make this design part of the permanent collection of the MOMA in New York.
There is furniture that marks an era, and on the other hand, furniture that is the result of a previous historical period combined with current trends, which bring with them a powerful symbolic and meaningful load.
Such is the case of the Proust Armchair.
At the end of the 70's, in the midst of a design fever that struggled to have more and more extravagant shapes and away from the human and comfortable, Alessandro Mendini had the idea of reinterpreting and redesigning furniture from other times, which although they were exotic for contemporary interior design did have an undeniable visual and haptic appeal.
The result was a success like few others. This exercise in irreverent appropriation and modification consisted - in crude terms - in giving an impressionist skin to a neo-baroque piece of furniture. Such juxtaposition was enthusiastically received by the public. In fact, this would originally be a one-off piece, but demand prompted more individual or limited series pieces to be made.
This brilliant idea by Mendini marked the birth of one of the most interesting trends in modern interior design and inspired many designers and furniture manufacturers, including ourselves, POLaRT, who created the Outdoor Plastic Luighi armchair as a tribute and a reinterpretation of the Proust chair.
It's hard to believe that this understated, futuristic-looking chair was actually designed 62 years ago, in 1958, to be exact. And yes, although its name is "chair", it can be considered as an armchair, as the lateral protrusions act as armrests and support.
This masterpiece is timeless and even after all this time, it can evoke the same sensations it evoked more than sixty years ago.
Like other works by the famous Danish architect Arne Jacobsen, the Egg chair is characterized by its soft and serene curves in pristine materials and with hardly any contrasts. One would think that this combination would result in a bland and characterless object, but the opposite is true.
The curves and colors of this chair make it a place of tranquility that invites anyone to sit down and relax for a while, in an experience comparable to being sheltered inside an egg.
"Simplicity is the maximum degree of sophistication" This is a truth that applies to design in all its facets, and which is evident in Le Corbusier's Cushion.
Although at first glance it may seem like a piece of furniture without much inspiration or complication, the Cubo armchair is the result of years of anthropometric and ergonomic studies condensed into a chair of perfect dimensions, capable of receiving a variety of comfortable postures, ideal for various activities, such as reflect, read and converse.
This design premise led to the creation of the Grand Comfort series, in which Le Corbusier created several of the most iconic pieces of functionalist furniture, which even today, 91 years after its creation, continue to look elegant, refined and avant-garde.
Fin Juhl was a pioneer in design, and in 1945 he created this armchair with a slim and light structure, which established him as a world-class designer. The model 45 armchair stands out for the very high quality of carpentry necessary to achieve the subtle curvatures of each piece and the apparently simple joints.
Originally featured at the 1945 Cabinetmakers' Exhibition, this chair was an immediate success, and not only did it win first prize, but the first piece was purchased in advance by an American customer despite its high cost.
As you can see, armchairs are more than just furniture, and their design can transform and give life to the spaces where they are used.
If you want to experiment with something new in your spaces, why not take a look at the POLaRT armchairs, chairs and sofas catalog? Fall in love with the unrivaled colors and textures that we have for you and take your projects to the next level.