Chair of the Day: Emeco/Sottsass Nine-0
The Nine-0 is Ettore Sottsass’ last chair design. Fittingly, it’s for Emeco.
It was Sottsass, after all, who “rescued” the original Emeco chair from a kind of obscurity. In case you don’t know the story, the original Emeco chair was designed by an anonymous US Government employee for the US Navy during WWII. The Navy needed a light, comfortable, and tough chair for sea going duty. Sottsass, one of the greatest designers, championed the Emeco chair, recognizing the purity of its design. He met the chairman of Emeco, and said he wished he had designed it. That lead to this collaboration.
Because the original is all metal, people think it must not be comfortable. The truth is, they’re very comfortable. (I have two in my office, and they’re great.) To address the perceptual issue, Sottsass added padding – in an number of nifty colors – and made the seat wider.
The second “problem” Sottsass solved was the need for a new armed, wheeled, desk version. He managed to do so and simultaneously kept the integrity of the original design – while at the same time redesigning the original. Other versions are available.
How important was designing this chair for Mr. Sottsass? Here’s how he put it:
“A chair must be really important as an object, because my mother always told me to offer my chair to a lady”
