Inventive aesthetic, lightweight chair

Marcel Wanders, a prolific product and interior designer headquartered in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, has developed more than 1,700 products or projects for premium brands such as Alessi, Bisazza, KLM, Flos, Swarovski and Puma, among others. Wanders challenged fellow designers—and himself—to create the world’s lightest chair. His method involved party balloons, of the type clowns use to create balloon animals for children, and ultra-light carbon fiber.

The Wanders Carbon Balloon Chair weighs approximately one pound, 12 ounces. Its debut at a Wanders retrospective exhibition at Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum on February 1, 2014, issued his challenge to a wide and appreciative audience. The chair is handmade from party balloons filled with compressed air, wrapped in strips of carbon fiber and hardened with epoxy resin. The seat netting consists of a carbon fiber grid also hardened with resin. “The chair requires fewer materials, generates less waste and is highly durable,”according to Wanders’ studio information. It also retains the comical character of the balloons, despite the carbon black exterior. For more, visit ww.marcelwanders.com.