Jasper Morrison

Before designing the 1 inch, we looked at Emeco’s whole catalogue and tried to find the gap. We found the gap to be a more comfortable, better-looking stacking chair. We wanted to make it at a cheaper price point than the usual Emeco chair. We could keep the Emeco language by sticking with a square tube, but the thought was to replace the welded seat back with a plastic alternative. It enriches it because the fantastic recycled material allows us to work with a new shape, a square tube. The frames are recycled aluminium and the seats are 100% reclaimed wood polypropylene, sustainable plywood or upholstered.

But it was a hell of a lot of work to achieve. When you bend a round tube, you can imagine that whatever direction you bend it in, it bends the same. But when you try for curves which are going in different directions with a square tube, it doesn’t like it. It’s very difficult, particularly the top where it can buckle the whole thing. So we redrew it many times. The factory would try and do it and each iteration it was bad news again, that the square was not liking to bend that way. Slowly we got to something better, and we were able to show prototypes in Milan in 2017.

Jasper Morrison

Full interview on the 1 inch at Design Applause