Iconic History Humpday!!!

The Adelta Ball and Bubble Chair...

The Ball Chair, or sometimes called the Globe Chair, was designed in 1966 by Eero Aarnio. It features a white fiberglass shell with a soft, upholstered inside. The ball of the chair has been mounted at one single point on a swiveling pedestal to allow people to turn away from the rest of the room and be completely isolated from sight and sound. In 1955 the Chair was presented at the International Furniture Fair in Cologne and was a sensation. This inspired a whole new line of fiberglass designs from Eero Aarnio. It also inspired another chair...

In 1968 the Ball Chair Inspired Aarnio to create the Bubble Chair! The concept of being engulfed by the chair is still represented but Aarnio had “wanted to have the light inside it and so I had the idea of a transparent ball where light comes from all directions.” He created his next masterpiece from acrylic. He had gotten the idea to use acrylic from bubble skylights. He had asked a manufacturer if the circumference could be pushed out further to look like a “soap bubble”. He then added a soft cushion to the interior and a metal ring along the opening. This chair is to be uniquely suspended to really appreciate the “masterpiece of reduction”. (Ludwig Mies van der Rohe).

These two chairs have one amazing feature in common; they both have fantastic acoustic qualities. The ball shape swallows sound; only noises created within the chair can be heard at high levels, while outside sound waves don’t enter. They have been used as special “quite rooms” for phone calling in noisy public spaces like EXPO 2000 in Hannover!

I would love to have one of these Bubble Chairs hanging in my space. I think that I would feel too claustrophobic in the Ball Chair. What are your thoughts?

Find a great reproduction here!

http://www.regencyshop.com/p80/Ball-Chair/product_info.html