“A Chair “There may be a living link to the past,” the influential architect and writer Witold Rybczynski writes on the first page of his book. now i sit me ,Farrar, Straus and Giroux$25). This much becomes clear throughout the fascinating details, which explore the seating’s unexpected design history. The idea for the book came to Rybzinski, an emeritus professor of architecture at the University of Pennsylvania, while researching a 2014 article. architect magazine on tadao ando’s The shiny but flawed dream chair. In this 227-page tome, filled with illustrations drawn by the author himself, anecdotes cover topics ranging from ancient Greek design to the work of postmodern master Michael Graves at JCPenney. One of the most interesting sections appears at the end, focusing on “special” use chairs – including wheelchairs, strollers, swings, and folding chairs – and detailing how deeply many of them are historically embedded. Have roots. Discover 13 chairs that had an impact on the world of design and read Rybczynski’s thoughts on the seven most influential chairs in the book.
