Knotted Chair, designed by Wanders for the Dutch design collective Droog Design, is an adaptation of macramé, a technique of knotting thread or cord to create a textile similar to coarse lace. The chair is a product of Droog’s collaboration with the faculty of aviation at Delft Technical University in the investigation of new materials and fabrication techniques. To make the chair, cords composed of aramid fibers—a strong and lightweight heat-resistant material commonly used in aerospace—twisted around a carbon core are knotted together by hand before being draped over a mold. The soft net is then infused with epoxy resin and dried to harden the textile and set the chair’s shape.
Gallery label from Applied Design, March 2, 2013–January 31, 2014.
Knotted Chair, designed by Wanders for the Dutch design group Droog Design, is an adaptation of macramé, a technique of knotting thread or cord to create a textile similar to coarse lace. The chair is a product of Droog's collaboration with the faculty of aviation at Delft Technical University in the investigation of new materials and fabrication techniques. Knotted Chair was the first project by Wanders to attract international interest, and the Italian furniture manufacturer Cappellini soon developed a prototype for production.
To make the chair, cords composed of aramid fibers twisted around a carbon core are knotted together by hand before being draped over a mold. The soft net is then infused with epoxy resin and dried to harden the textile and set the chair's shape. This process, termed Dry Tech, employs passive, low-energy techniques—saturating, molding, and drying—to achieve strength and stability of form. The resulting chair is lightweight, delicate, and intricately formed, yet is surprisingly sturdy, supportive, and durable. A marriage of high-technology materials with the methods of traditional craft, Knotted Chair confounds expectations of how a textile should perform; Wanders has created a surreal doll's chair for adults.
Publication excerpt from The Museum of Modern Art, MoMA Highlights since 1980, New York: The Musuem of Modern Art, 2007, p. 174.
