Knotted Chair (prototype no. 5)

Marcel Wanders ‘macraméd’ his ‘Knotted Chair’ using string made of super-strong aramid fibre and ultra-light carbon fibre. The knotted construction was given invisible reinforcement by coating it in epoxy resin and leaving it to harden. Wanders created the back and seat sections by hanging the chair up to dry. The resulting chair is sturdy, yet weighs only 1.4 kilos and can be picked up with a little finger. The form is a reference to the design technique of the Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí, who worked with hanging chain models in the early twentieth century. The ‘Knotted Chair’ was created during the Dry Tech project, set up by design platform Droog Design in collaboration with Delft University of Technology. The chair quickly became an icon of the Droog collection and of Dutch Design, which, since the mid-1990s, has taken the world by storm with its focus on concepts, unusual combinations of materials and techniques, and unexpected functions.