The stool - A design challenge to be taken seriously.

The stool - A design challenge to be taken seriously.

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The stool has a long history, evolving from a symbol of wealth in ancient times to an everyday object with many uses. This article takes a closer look at the stool as a design challenge, from student projects to iconic pieces by renowned designers. Learn how creativity and craftsmanship come together in six standout stool designs, each with a unique story and innovative approach.

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When you google “stool,” you will find it described as a simple seat with three or four legs and without a back- or armrest. You will also learn that the stool goes back to the ancient Mediterranean, during the age of 1400-1200 before Christ. In that case, it is often exclusively crafted, ornamented, and used as a symbol of power and wealth, while the stool, as we know it today, has become a common device for multiple uses: To sit on, to step on, to put things on, often without further attention.

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One of the first challenges for a design student today is to create an object for sitting out of a limited piece of solid wood. This task has been going on for many decades. It’s fascinating to examine the results in total, but even more, to see the variations in how the students approach the task. The mainstream result is a simple stool or chair made of solid pine, straightforward and square-angled. An uncomfortable but honest seating device that does not reveal anything about the student's personality. It’s okay- the task is fulfilled, even if you, as a viewer, had wished for something more innovative. But every year, there are some students who perform something out of the ordinary. A solution that makes you think, ”I wish I had thought of that!”.

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In the daily life of a professional designer, you often meet similar challenges. Your profession is built on a mixture of art and technique. When your ambitions are set high you need to show your artistic creativity as well as your technical capacity, even when designing a stool. Below are some examples of stools where the designer solved the task in a particularly innovative way, technically, conceptually, or artistically. Six stools that have remained in my memory and that I believe deserve a place in the stool’s hall of fame!

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Model V63

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Stool Model V63 was designed by the Finnish architect Alvar Aalto in 1946. In this stool, very unlike his first archetypical stool Nr 60 from 1933, Aalto shows his perfection as a material handler as well as stretching the bow when it comes to the press-molded lamination technology. The stool is quite rare and very exclusive, which was not Aalto’s landmark in furniture design in general. The stool was manufactured by the Finnish company Artek.

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Mezzadro Stool

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Mezzadro Stool from 1957, designed by the Italian architects and brothers Pier Giacomo and Achille Castiglioni. This stool, inspired by the agriculture design typology, attracted great attention when it was released by the Italian manufacturer Zanotta in the late 1950s. Acting out of both practical and intellectual motives, the designers bolted a tractor seat to a chrome and wood base, combining preexisting object constructions with new uses. You can say that the Castiglionis were ahead of their time, creating surprise and novelty with forms made from found materials.
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PK 91

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The PK 91 Stool, was designed by Danish architect Poul Kjærholm in 1961. Despite its relative simplicity, this folding stool is a masterpiece in aesthetics, technology, and material quality. Throughout his design career, Kjærholm was devoted to uncompromising material choice and exquisite craftsmanship. Few other designers would have put that much effort into creating a simple folding stool as Kjærholm, using solid twisted stainless steel and ball bearing-based assembly. The stool was originally produced by Kold Christensen, but today by Fritz Hansen, Denmark.

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Variable Balance

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Variable Balance Stool, was designed in 1979 by Norwegian Peter Opsvik. This stool is a clear example of Opsvik’s dedication, or should I say obsession, with the alternative ergonomic sitting postures. The Variable stool is Opsvik´s original kneeling chair, designed to enhance your sense of well-being while seated. According to the designer, it follows your body’s natural movements and allows you to switch between kneeling and more traditional postures. At first the stool was manufactured by the Stokke company, but today it's produced by Varier (Norway).

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Plopp Stool

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The Plopp Stool was created by the Polish architect Oskar Zieta in 2008. What makes this stool unique is both its aesthetics and the production methods used. I would say the Plopp stool will become an icon in design history. The stool is a symbol of Zieta’s research into the possibilities of metal material and production. Two ultra-thin steel sheets are welded together around their edges and inflated under extremely high pressure, deforming a flat form into a 3D object. The Plopp stool is produced by Polish Zieta Pozessdesign and Danish- Americam Hay.

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Lilla Snåland

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The Lilla Snåland Stool, was created by Swedish designer Marie-Louise Hellgren in 2017. The stool’s name is an homage to the famous Lilla Åland stick-back chair, designed by Professor Carl Malmsten in 1948 and still one of the most popular chairs in Sweden. When visiting the manufacturer Stolab, Hellgren noticed that during the production of the solid seat, two wedge-shaped waste pieces occurred. Since Hellgren is an advocate for sustainability, she saw an opportunity to reuse this waste material into a new piece of furniture. From left-over pieces from Lilla Åland she composed the beautifully shaped seat for Lilla Snåland stool, which name congenially means “frugal” in English.

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Written by Lars Bülow