Chandigarh Chair

Pierre Jeanneret’s Chandigarh chair was made out of necessity, for a city that did not yet exist. Chandigarh was the first planned city of independent India, built in the middle of the twentieth century as the new capital of Punjab, and it needed furnishing.

The chair has since become one of the most sought-after pieces of modern design.

The commission came through Jeanneret’s cousin, Le Corbusier, who was planning the city. Jeanneret worked with local materials and with the climate in mind: a frame of teak, a seat and back of woven cane that lets the air through on a hot afternoon. Nothing about it is decorative, and nothing is missing.

The cane gives the chair a second, quieter relevance. Rattan, the palm it comes from, grows quickly and will take hold in poor soil, and it is strong, light and supple. Next to slow-growing timber it is a gentle choice, and it was so long before the word sustainable was in use.

What keeps the chair modern, more than sixty years on, is how closely form follows use. The lines are clean and the geometry plain. The V-shaped legs echo the concrete forms of Chandigarh’s government buildings, so that the chair carries a small piece of the city wherever it goes.