2019 sees the Centenary Anniversary of the founding of the Bauhaus Design School in Germany by architect Walter Gropius. It can be observed that much of the furniture that was designed during the Bauhaus movement’s most prolific years are now considered to be icons of 21st Century design almost one hundred years after their inception. The Bauhaus designs conceptualised in the 1930s have become enduring favourites in decades beyond, due to their practicality, durability and refined, timeless style.
Poul Henningsen (PH) was designing extensively in the time of the Bauhaus movement and some of the Bauhaus design principles can also be seen reflected in the many of PH’s creations. The PH Arm Chair features many of the hallmarks of Bauhaus design: it is the embodiment of an item of furniture created firstly for function but with consideration for the importance of form. The simple, linear construction of the Poul Henningsen’s PH Arm Chair, designed by Poul Henningsen in 1932, is a harmony of oblique curves and angular lines that fulfil their function, their combination in themselves is inherently beautiful without the need for superfluous ornamentation.
Poul Henningsen’s collection of chair designs share many of the same common features that can be regarded as PH’s distinctive signature style. Hallmarks of PH’s Chair designs include unusual leg shape and construction, made with the intention of creating a strong base that minimally obstructs the leg room available to the person seated within the chair. For this reason, PH did not generally favour affixing the legs of his chair designs at the four corners of the seat; rather PH preferred to fix the legs under the seat in the centre or in the case of PH’s Snake Chair, dispense with the necessity for three or four legs entirely.
The PH Arm Chair features the same style of legs as the PH Pope Chair. Reminiscent of the roots of a tree, the legs of the PH Arm Chair provide a stability and strength that is refined, unobtrusive and does not distract visually from the body of the chair that it is supporting. The PH Arm Chair appears almost to be floating above the floor, directing the attention to beautifully finished seat that blossoms above it. The base of PH Henningsen’s PH Arm Chair is a reflection of nature itself.
The PH Arm Chair can be used in a diverse number of environments, both as residential furniture and in commercial situations. This is a chair that is deeply considered and ideal for deep consideration: a supportive vessel in which to comfortably envelope one’s body while thinking, reading, relaxing, when in conversation, when together or alone. It works in the corporate environment, hotel, the lounge, the meeting room, the home study and the hallway.
The steel tube framework of each individually numbered PH Arm Chair produced by PH Furniture is precision engineered in Switzerland. The PH Arm Chair can be supplied finished in leather in mocca, black, walnut or indian red or Hallingdal fabric in black or light grey, so it can be realised to suit every interior design setting. Practical, beautiful, timeless and collectible, the PH Arm Chair is an example of the very best of 20th Century furniture design.