Iconic Egg Chair - Compelling Story Behind it

Originated in the fifties, the Egg Chair is a classic that has become one of the most recognizable designs of all time. The first Egg Chair was created by the Danish architect and designer Arne Jacobsen in 1958 for the SAS Royal Hotel in downtown Copenhagen, Denmark.

He was commissioned to design every element of the building, from the walls to furniture to the cutlery that would be used in the restaurant to the lighting to the ashtrays. With the curvy Egg Chair, he seized the opportunity to put into practice his ideas on how exactly architecture and furniture may integrate.

The Egg Chair was the most outstanding part of his entire hotel design and has become a design classic with global success. It broke all design conventions with its curving shape, which Jacobsen was able to achieve by molding the inner structure out of foam and wrapping it with upholstery.

Curvaceous, Enveloping Masterpiece

Jacobsen had experimented with clay in his garage, testing and perfecting the shape, before moving on to sculpting the foam.The elliptical Egg Chair acts as a cocoon around the sitter, gently curving inwards. It sits atop a star shaped swivel base, and the angle adjusts to the user’s weight.

Designed for the lobby, the hotel was fitted with 50 first edition Egg Chairs covered in blue fabric. Its curvaceous, developing form stood out against the straight lines of the 22-storey building it inhabited. This building was the first skyscraper in Copenhagen ever!

Even if the foam made the chair incredibly lightweight, ensuring it could be easily moved around, a 1958 Egg Chair leather weighed 7kg. Luckily, the materials used today are a technically advanced foam with glass fibre reinforcement, making the modern iteration much lighter.

The Egg Chair Arne Jacobsen is now available in a range of different hued fabrics and leathers, from subdued to bold. While designing the leather Egg Chair, Jacobsen also came up with the less recognisable Swan Chair for the hotel’s reception area and lobby. It too boasts soft curves.

Other Danish Icons

Jacobsen designed both the Egg Chair and Swan Chair with matching sofas, yet only a few of the Egg sofas were ever manufactured. The sofa’s size made it pretty difficult to make and to neatly upholster with leather with no unsightly stitching in the middle of its wide seat.

The Egg Chair’s form was era defining and Jacobsen became one of the most imitated designers of the last century. This Danish design pioneer was known not only for his many chair designs, but also for several notable buildings,

These notable buildings by Jacobsen including St Catherine’s College, Oxford and the Aarhus City Hall and, of course, the SAS Royal Hotel itself. Six decades have passed, and the Egg Chair fabric is still as popular as ever.

Design Classic

In recent decades, the Arne Jacobsen Egg Chair took on a new role in popular culture, becoming an iconic part of the reality series Big Brother as the seat in the much-used diary room. It was even used in high-end McDonald's branches in London and Copenhagen.

Its popularity has inevitably been helped by a renewed interest in Danish mid century furniture design. Yet, its ergonomic form and revolutionary shape that hinted at the curves and bubble of the decades to come have ensured it has remained a design classic for over half a century.

We hope this compelling story of the iconic Egg Chair truly inspires you. Thinking about getting one of these Danish masterpieces for yourself? Visit Manhattan Home Design for high-end lounge chair replicas!