The collection
Chair formed of stiffened knotted rope, similar to a macramé net frozen in space.
1995

Chair, Geknoopte Stoel (Knotted Chair)

Designed by
Marcel Wanders (born 1963)
Material
Carbon and Aramid fibers, epoxy
Produced by
Cappellini S.p.A., Como, Italy, for Droog Design, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Dimensions
74.8 x 50.5 x 66 cm

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Liliane and David M. Stewart Collection, gift of Cappellini S.p.A., D99.138.1

Dutch designer Marcel Wanders combined craft techniques with new technology to produce this chair, which was made of macramé, or knotting string without the use of tools. While macramé normally produces a soft net similar to crochet, Wanders invented a process in which carbon-fiber rope in a sleeve of Aramid fibers was knotted by an individual worker into a limp chair shape and then, at the manufacturer’s plant, soaked in liquid epoxy, hung in a frame in the desired form, and dried at 80°C.

Lightweight and lacy, the finished chair is both rigid and strong. Wanders sought a mass-producible handmade design that would not soon appear out of date. The chair is still in production today.

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, photo: Giles Rivest.