Frank Gehry

Architect/ Furniture Designer/Designer

(28 February 1929-)
• Anyone who loves design on any scale, from the shape of a
building to the color of the furniture inside of it, has probably
heard of Frank Gehry. Unquestionably one of the most
innovative, most popular and most prolific architects of his
generation, Gehry is famous around the world for his
unconventional designs and ingenious use of shapes and
materials to produce striking, sometimes reality-warping effects
with his work. But before gaining renown as an architect, Gehry
first grabbed the attention of the design world for his work with
furniture (1). And though it remains the lesser known part of his
legend, the work that Gehry did in furniture—a precursor to the
architectural approach that would make him famous—remains
highly sought after, and an inspiration for current designs.
Easy Edges Side Chair
Easy Edges Side Chair
• As was and is true of Gehry the architect, the main attraction to his furniture
was its use of an ordinary material—corrugated cardboard—to create
fantastic shapes that literally reshaped people's image of furniture while
remaining extremely functional and durable. The process began when
Gehry discovered that cardboard, weak and flimsy in single sheets, gained
considerable strength when worked in layers. From there he began creating
interesting new shapes. The ribbon-like arrangements that would define the
collection appealed to the architect as they looked and felt,
"like corduroy (2)."
• Called, Easy Edges, this initial collection gained almost immediate success
(ibid.). The side chair, with its vertically undulating effect, is emblematic of
the collection as a whole. With only a hardboard facing added to the
cardboard and no color or fabric disguising the mundane material, the
pieces are nevertheless irresistible fully due to their hypnotic shape and
incredible strength.
The Contour Chair
The Contour Chair

• Another famous offering from this collection, the Contour

Chair clearly demonstrates the level of Gehry's facility with the
manufacturing process and his complete control of the medium.
Though created in layers, the chair appears to be formed from a
single piece, expertly bent to create an unexpectedly
comfortable seat. Though Gehry would withdraw the collection
shortly after its release out of concern that its popularity would
overshadow his work in architecture, several pieces, like the
Contour, remain available for sale.
Cardboard Table Lamp
Cardboard Table Lamp

• In addition to a number of chairs, lounges and even tables, the

Easy Edges collection also included lighting options like
this cardboard table lamp. The ability of the designer to
continually surprise his audience with the potential of his
chosen medium is one of the reasons why the pieces were so
well received. Though furniture design was clearly not Gehry's
intended profession, the success of Easy Edges helped fund
some of the early projects that would catapult his architectural
career to even greater heights, including a remodel of his own
Santa Monica home.
Experimental Edges
 Experimental Edges
• In 1979, six years after ending the production of Easy Edges, Gehry
returned to furniture design with a new collection (5). In Experimental
Edges, Gehry went even deeper with more intricate designs. At the same
time, even more of an effort was made to emphasize the rough, unfinished
texture of the cardboard as seen here in the Carumba side chair.
• At various points in the pieces of this collection, Gehry manipulated the
density of the cardboard in certain sections. He varied the widths of the
cardboard sheets used together in certain sections and purposely
misaligned others, which increased the ripple effect seen in his earlier
creations (ibid.). Together with the rough textures, these ripples increased
the ad hoc appearance of the pieces all in an effort to make chairs that, as
Gehry put it, "nobody would like."
Bent Wood Collection
Bent Wood Collection
• The Experimental Edges collection lasted until 1982. This time it would be
seven years before Gehry would produce another selection of furniture (5).
When he did, it would be unlike anything he had done before. Originally
created for Knoll beginning in 1989, and produced in 1992, Gehry's Bent
Wood Collection offered exactly what the title suggested. Gone were the
rough edges and challenging textures of his earlier works in cardboard. In
their place, the smooth finishes and soft curves of bent wood were
employed to realize the designers' ideal forms. Again the architect was
inspired by the notion of structural integrity as much as aesthetic value as
the inspiration for this collection came from memories of the strength of
apple crates that he played on as a child.
Bent Wood Collection
• In speaking about the collection, Gehry maintained that, like all of his
work in furniture, his bentwood collection was, "a reaction against the
usual expectations of the furniture market. (9)." As he explained it, the
difference between earlier bentwood offerings and his own work was
that:
• "All bentwood furniture until now has relied on a thick and heavy
main structure and then an intermediary structure for the seating. The
difference in my chairs is that structure and the seat are formed of the
same incredibly lightweight slender wood strips, which serve both
functions. What makes this all work and gives it extraordinary strength
is the interwoven, basket-like character of the design… It really is
possible to make bentwood furniture pliable, and springy and light
Continual Experimentation
Continual Experimentation

• Where the "Edges" collections had appeared molded or even glued

together the pieces of the Bent Wood Collection seemed almost woven, as
if the various wooden planks had simply been twisted together like yarn.
On the contrary, the effect was the result of almost continual
experimentation by Gehry with maple wood in a workshop next to his office
(5). Only seven pieces of the more than one hundred prototypes that were
created ever made it into production (ibid.). Of the seven, five remain
available for purchase from Knoll.
Assignment

Some Of The Most Iconic Furniture Designers

• Le Corbusier
• Marcel Breuer
• Charles and Ray Eames
• Vico Magistretti
• HANS WaGNER
• Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
• Charlotte Perriand