Expanded polystyrene armchair designed by Tom Dixon.
Identifier
FPF463
Title
Expanded polystyrene armchair designed by Tom Dixon.
Date
2006
Description
Expanded polystyrene armchair designed by Tom Dixon, manufactured by EPS Packaging Group.
Full Description
This armchair is a single piece of moulded expanded polystyrene (EPS). It has the dimensions of a standard armchair but is lightweight and portable. It was designed by Tom Dixon and made by EPS Packaging Group, a company specialising in expanded polystyrene packaging products. The chair was one of 500 made as part of London Design Week in September 2006, when they were displayed in Trafalgar Square and then given away to the public. The event was called the Polystyrene Chair Grab.
As Dixon has said: “Making a polystyrene chair has given me the opportunity to fulfil an ambition to make design available to all: this time literally, by giving away hundreds of these chairs to Londoners with absolutely no chains attached” (Tom Dixon website).
The chairs were made in three colours, white, silver and orange; this white one was ‘grabbed’ by Guy Beggs, an artist and tutor at London Metropolitan University, who later gave it to the Frederick Parker Collection.
Tom Dixon (born 1959) is a self-taught British designer who rose to prominence in the mid-1980s when he set up ‘Space’ as a creative think-tank and shop-front for himself and other young designers. Dixon later went on to design for the Italian company Cappellini, and in 1998 was appointed head of design at Habitat, becoming creative director from 2001 until 2008. In 2007 Dixon formed Design Research Studio, an interior and architectural design studio (Jackson, 2013).
As Dixon has said: “Making a polystyrene chair has given me the opportunity to fulfil an ambition to make design available to all: this time literally, by giving away hundreds of these chairs to Londoners with absolutely no chains attached” (Tom Dixon website).
The chairs were made in three colours, white, silver and orange; this white one was ‘grabbed’ by Guy Beggs, an artist and tutor at London Metropolitan University, who later gave it to the Frederick Parker Collection.
Tom Dixon (born 1959) is a self-taught British designer who rose to prominence in the mid-1980s when he set up ‘Space’ as a creative think-tank and shop-front for himself and other young designers. Dixon later went on to design for the Italian company Cappellini, and in 1998 was appointed head of design at Habitat, becoming creative director from 2001 until 2008. In 2007 Dixon formed Design Research Studio, an interior and architectural design studio (Jackson, 2013).
Condition
Minor scuffing across the whole chair with some minimal chunks missing from the front-facing edge of the seat.
Materials
Expanded polystyrene (EPS).
Physical Dimensions
H. 72
W. 93
D. 77
W. 93
D. 77
Provenance
Donated to the Frederick Parker Collection by Guy Beggs in 2007.
Notes
For details on Tom Dixon see Lesley Jackson, Modern British Furniture, Design since 1945, V& A Publishing, 2013, pp.247-253.
See also:
Polystyrene Chair Grab | Tom Dixon
Tom Dixon Polystyrene Chair Grab | London Design Festival
See also:
Polystyrene Chair Grab | Tom Dixon
Tom Dixon Polystyrene Chair Grab | London Design Festival
