Monobloc - turning a simple plastic garden chair into a design object.

Architect and product designer Bert Löschner has turned the simple plastic garden chair into a design object.



The Monobloc chair is a lightweight stackable polypropylene chair, often described as the world's most common. Based on original designs by the Italian designer Vico Magistretti in 1967, since then, millions have been manufactured.

The Monobloc chair is named because it is injection molded from thermoplastic polypropylene, the granules being heated to about 220 degrees Celsius, and the melt injected into a mold. The gate of the mold is usually located in the seat, so ensuring smooth flow to all parts of the tool. The chairs cost approximately $3 to produce, making them affordable across the world.

Social theorist Ethan Zuckerman describes them as having achieved a global ubiquity: The Monobloc is one of the few objects I can think of that is free of any specific context. Seeing a white plastic chair in a photograph offers you no clues about where or when you are.

References:

Garden Furniture | Euromaxx - YouTube http://bit.ly/16QlX9H
Monobloc (chair) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://bit.ly/16Qmto9