Garden Egg chair

	Garden Egg chair
	Garden Egg chair
	Designer : Peter Ghyczy
	Date : 1968
	Country : Germany
	Materials : Polyurethane frame. Leather or fabric inner.
	Style/Tradition : Modernist
	Dimensions: 84x74x98cm (WxDxH)
	Colours : variable

Chair
This chair was designed in 1968 and intended for outdoor use. The Garden egg chair thrives on its versatility. The outside consists of a hard, resistant shell which protects the chair, making it completely water proof when flipping down the top.

The inside then, represents the Gardeneggchair’s softer side, with a detachable textile cover on the comfortable cushion. Both the exterior as well as the cushion cover are available in a series of colours, allowing for enough mixing and matching to ensure a Gardeneggchair which best reflects one’s personality.

All in all, it makes the chair perfect for outdoor use all year around, without taking away the fact that it would add flair to any indoor area as well.

History
The Gardeneggchair is a classic among designer furniture. It have been given many names, like senftenberger ei, pod chair, l’œuf and garden(egg)chair. It is designed by Peter Ghyczy head of the design department at Elastogran / Reuter. First production made in 1968. Elastogran / Reuter was producing the plastic Polyurethane and selling it worldwide. Peter Ghyczy was contracted to create a design centre, where industrial clients were shown the possibilities of Polyurethane. The garden egg chair is one of the first chairs designed and produced in Polyurethane.

Having reached the land-mark age of 40, the garden egg chair has not stood still in its development during these years, more suitable materials being substituted for previous ones as technology progressed.

After a stint of being produced by East-German firm VEB-Synthese-Werk, since 1998 the Gardeneggchair has returned home, with its base of production at Ghyczy Selection BV in the Netherlands. It is now sold under its own brand name garden(egg)chair. www.gardeneggchair.com

Designer
Peter Ghyczy (1940) left his native Hungary in 1956 on account of that year’s revolution, for West-Germany. There, he completed his secondary education, as well as studying sculpture at the Düsseldorf Art Academy, and architecture at Aachen University. It was after this, that Peter Ghyczy became head of the design department at Elastogran / Reuter, and developed the Gardeneggchair in 1968. Feeling limited by the conventional approach of Elastogran / Reuter, Peter Ghyczy left in 1972.

He again traded in his country of residence, moving to the Netherlands and founding the firm Ghyczy Selection BV, where production of the gardeneggchair has been based since 1998.

Perhaps the essence of Peter Ghyczy’s work, and what signifies him as a designer most, are the smooth blends that he manages to create out of seemingly contradictive concepts. The elements of classical Modernism that can be found in his designs demonstrate this clearly, as well as the Art Deco which manages to live alongside a quick, subtly playful style.

See also