Shrinx Chair

As you have probably gathered by now, we at Pickle are partial to a good chair. The Shrinx lounge chair, designed by Boris Berlin for +Halle, recently caught our eye.

At first glance, it has the familiar, generous proportions of a traditional club chair. Look a little closer, though, and its construction is anything but traditional. Instead of building that volume from layers of foam, Shrinx uses a lightweight steel frame covered by a specially made textile.

The loose, pre-sewn cover is draped over the frame and secured in place before heat is applied. As the textile contracts, it reshapes itself around the structure, creating the chair’s softly rounded form. So the name is not simply a bit of playful spelling: the chair really does shrink into shape.

The technique was developed with German textile specialist Krall+Roth. Because the fabric is shrunk rather than pulled tightly across the frame, it gives the chair a slightly translucent, almost architectural quality. From a distance it looks reassuringly substantial, but the visible structure makes it feel unexpectedly light.

It is a clever use of materials that questions whether a comfortable-looking lounge chair has to rely on conventional foam upholstery. The result is part club chair, part construction experiment, and somehow still looks rather inviting.

Originally spotted at Dezeen.