Eliminating the distinction between craft and industry, the ‘Knotted Chair’ (1996) unites conflicting aspects, methods and materials in order to surprise and innovate. Combining hand-crafted tactile design with high-tech industrial processes, the design begins with an aramid braided cord around a carbon fibre core that is manipulated in the traditional technique of macramé to form the shape of the chair. The slack threads are impregnated with epoxy and hung in a frame to harden thus using gravity to accomplish its shape. Besides technologically innovative, this object is romantic, humane and decorative altogether and anything unlike the design world had seen in 1996, thus becoming an icon and a point of reference for design and the years to follow. Part of the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the V&A Museum, London and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, among others, the ‘Knotted Chair’ is a modern miracle of transparency, a highlight of the international design world and a sought after collector’s item.

Interested to purchase? Please visit the online art gallery Da Capo al Coda Gallery.