Charles and Ray Eames designed La Chaise for the Museum of Modern Art’s 1948 International Competition for Low-Cost Furniture Design. Its name refers to the sculptor Gaston Lachaise, whose Floating Figure suggested the relationship between an extended body and a form that appears to hover.
The broad, asymmetrical surface allows several sitting and reclining positions. One side rises into a rounded back with a circular opening; the other extends outward into a low support. Thin metal struts and crossed wooden feet leave the sculptural shell visually suspended above the floor.
MoMA’s prototype combines hard rubber foam, plastic, wood and metal. The museum records that the design did not win a prize, although the judges singled out its molded construction. The cost and specialized character of the chair made it difficult to reconcile with the competition’s practical aims.
La Chaise entered production only decades after its conception. The version offered by the Eames Office is made by Vitra with a white lacquered polyurethane shell, chrome-plated steel supports and an oak base. It connects furniture design with the biomorphic sculpture represented elsewhere in this archive.
