Cirkelstolen / The Circle Chair by Hans Wegner 1986
/This chair is a testament to the imagination of Hans Wegner and to the technical skills of the cabinetmakers PP Møbler.
Wegner first considered making a chair based on a large circle in 1965 but it took 20 years to put the design into production. Wegner thought that such a large circle could only be made in metal and it was Ejnar Pedersen, a founder of PP Møbler, who persuaded Wegner that it could be made in wood.
The circle is laminated with 11 layers of wood each 3.5 metres long, cut to shape and bent round and joined to form a circle. A specific machine to bend and link the circle was designed by Søren Holst Pedersen - the son of Ejnar Pedersen.
The circle is supported and held at an angle by an amazing combination of shaped struts and curved stretchers with the seat and back woven in halyard - the rope with a nylon core covered with jute that Wegner used for other chairs.
Despite its size, the chair is relatively light and, with wheels on the back struts, it can be moved into the right place quite easily.
Among the drawings for this design is an extraordinary sketch of a variation in metal like a giant loop that has been twisted back on itself. It takes some mental effort to work out which loop goes which way and how the rope mesh would work but you can track everything through quite rationally and it is at that point that you understand just what an amazing mental command Wegner had of such incredibly complex 3D shapes … he imagined this and then sketched what he imagined and it would have worked and that really is an outstanding skill.
designed by Hans Wegner (1914-2007)
cabinetmakers PP Møbler
ash or oak
halyard - core of nylon with sleeve of woven jute
clips steel or brass
height: 97 cm
width: 112 cm
depth: 94 cm
height to front edge of seat: 42 cm