The butterfly chair, also known as a ''BKF chair'' or ''Hardoy chair'', is a style of chair featuring a metal frame and a large sling hung from the frame's highest points, creating a suspended seat. The frame of the chair is generally painted black. The sling was originally leather,Alt URL
/ref> but can also be made from canvas or other materials. The design is popular for portable recreational seating.

History

The Butterfly chair was designed in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

in 1938 by the architects Antonio Bonet,

Juan Kurchan Juan Kurchan (November 21, 1913 – November 3, 1972) was an Argentine architect and designer and a mentor of the Modern Movement in Argentina. He designed a portable seat known as the BKF Chair or butterfly chair. He was part of a group worki ...

and , who were working with

Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...

's studio, and who formed the architectural collective in

. The chair was developed for an apartment building they designed in Buenos Aires. On March 6, 1940, a picture of the chair appeared in the US publication ''Retailing Daily'', where it was described as a "newly invented Argentine easy-chair . . . for siesta sitting". On July 24, 1940, the chair was awarded the 2nd prize by the National Cultural Commission at the 3rd ''Salón de Artistas Decoradores'' exhibition in Argentina. Both the exhibition and the picture in ''Retailing Daily'' attracted the attention of the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. At the request of the director of MoMA's Industrial Design Department,

Edgar Kaufmann Jr. Edgar Kaufmann Jr. (April 9, 1910 – July 31, 1989) was an American architect, lecturer, author, and an adjunct professor of architecture and art history at Columbia University. Early years He was the son of Edgar J. Kaufmann, a wealthy Pittsbu ...

, Hardoy sent 3 chairs to

. One went to

Fallingwater Fallingwater is a house designed by the architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1935 in the Laurel Highlands of southwest Pennsylvania, about southeast of Pittsburgh in the United States. It is built partly over a waterfall on Bear Run in the Mill R ...

, Edgar Kaufmann Jr.'s home in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

(designed by

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...

), another went to MoMA, while the third probably went to Clifford Pascoe of Artek-Pascoe, Inc., New York. The chair gets the name of ''BKF chair'' from the initials of its creators "Bonet-Kurchan-Ferrari". It is also known as the ''Hardoy chair'' because an official letter from the firm attributed primary authorship of the design to Ferrari-Hardoy.

Origins

The BKF chair is a revival of the Paragon chair (more recently known as the

Tripolina The Tripolina is a folding chair made out of wood with metal swivel joints and animal hide. It was invented by Joseph B. Fenby and patented in the United States in 1881. The Tripolina chair was made from prior to World War II by the firm of Vig ...

chair), which was designed by

Joseph Beverley Fenby Joseph Beverley Fenby (1841–1903) was an English mechanical engineer and inventor who designed a device that would record a sequence of keyboard strokes onto paper tape. Although no model or workable device was ever made, it is often seen as a li ...

and has been used as

campaign furniture Campaign furniture is a type of furniture which is made for travel. Historically, much of it was made for military campaigns. Description Any furniture specifically made to break down or fold for ease of travel can be described as campaign furni ...

and camping furniture since the 1880s.

Production

The chair was originally designed in Argentina. However, Edgar Kaufmann Jr. accurately predicted that it would become extremely popular in the US, calling it one of the "best efforts of modern chair design". In the early 1940s, it was produced in the US by Artek-Pascoe, Inc., New York). Production was slow, due to wartime shortage of metal. After the war, the US production rights were acquired by

Hans Knoll Hans G. Knoll (1914–1955) was a German-American who, together with his wife, Florence Knoll, founded Knoll, the well-known design company and furniture manufacturer. Biography Hans Knoll was born in Germany in 1914. His father was a modern furn ...

, who had recognized its commercial potential in 1947 and added it to the

Knoll In geography, knoll is another term for a knowe or hillock, a small, low, round natural hill or mound. Knoll may also refer to: Places * Knoll Camp, site of an Iron Age hill fort Hampshire, England, United Kingdom * Knoll Lake, Leonard Canyon, Ar ...

line. The chair’s commercial success led to a surge in unauthorized replicas. After a losing a legal case for design-infringement, Knoll ceased production in 1951. Since then, the butterfly chair continues to be produced by many manufacturers from many countries.

References

{{Knoll Chairs Individual models of furniture Portable furniture Argentine inventions