Armchair China-Windsor

"Armchair China Windsor realises one of the dreams that led me to start Norrgavel: “Longing for a rounded chair with materials and a lightness like in the Danish chairs from my childhood, except more comfortable... sand, sun, light, air, soft skin, snail shell...” I love it when the vision is in the body before it takes physical shape; the feeling of the seat, against your thigh, small of the back, back, underarms, the feeling of travelling, lifting. Its working title was the nature-air-chair and the challenge lay in finding the shape that turned that feeling into reality. My sketchbooks from 2008 and after show attempts in different directions, while in parallel full-scale trials were being conducted in the prototype joinery workshop, but without us really making it work. After New Year in 2010, I saw the film of Sense and Sensibility with a sequence that etched itself in my brain; Windsor chairs with bow-backs like organic tree branches around a table. The following year, the picture reappeared as a finished design sketch, a nature-air-chair with a Chinese S-bend back leg, a plaited string seat and a Windsor-type back. But although we were happy with the design itself, the process to the finished product is long and demands total focus. It was not until 2017 that there was scope for another go, when we methodically tackled the list of challenges – a phase where craftsmanship is really put to the test:

· Through trial and error we worked out the angle of the seat and the back leg gained its slope and Chinese curve.

· Inspiration for the back of the chair came from Windsor chairs of the New York type. The top rail gained its slope, bevelled edge and kink and an updated end like that of the front leg – similar to top rails found on ancient Chinese chairs.

· The spindles in the back were turned on a lathe to provide lumbar support. 

· To achieve a more comfortable seat than an ordinary envelope weave, we worked together with master weavers to create a more anatomical bowl shape.

· The slender silhouette is important, so to ensure strength, the side parts of the frame were thickened invisibly into the weave of the seat. 

· The frame at the back was rendered unfussy with slits for the weave at the front and milled down between each spindle of the back.

· Finally, the rungs were inserted, discreetly but with optimum stability.

Armchair China-Windsor takes its name from the sources that inspired it. The Chinese S-shaped back leg adds character but the comfort is mainly explained by the angle of the seat, the anatomical bowl seat and the Windsor back."

Nirvan Richter, designer

I production since 2022