In 1931 Mies van der Rohe applied for a patent for a “multifunctional lounge chair”. It was to be both ergonomic and elegant, cantilevered and suspended, suitable for both indoor and outdoor use.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s verdict on Stam’s chair: ‘Ugly, something really ugly, with these couplings. If he had at least made it rounder – that would have looked better’ – and he drew an arc. Simply an arc in his own hand added to the Stam sketch – that made the new chair.”

Only one thing was missing to complement its extraordinary form: the seat and its covering. That’s where Lilly Reich stepped in – an interior designer, who worked in Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s office from 1926. She and Mies came up with the idea of using wickerwork for the Weißenhof chair. Together with a master basket maker, Reich developed the new aesthetic that perfected the expansive chair as a holistic work of art.

To this day, the suspended F42E lounge chair condenses the moment of flying in a piece of furniture that looks like a flapping wing, its silhouette exuding functionality, aesthetics and restraint. While its counterpart, the adjustable F42-1E with the same lying space, quotes the swinging lines of the cantilever chair in its cantilever frame.

The reclining chairs were designed by Mies van der Rohe for a villa ensemble in Krefeld. The buildings have now become well-known museums: Haus Lange and Haus Esters, located right next to each other on Wilhelmshofer Allee in Krefeld. They were commissioned by the founders of the united silk weaving factories Hermann Lange and Josef Esters and were intended as private homes for their families. In 1930 Mies van der Rohe completed these linear, almost Japanese looking buildings and sketched the lounge chairs with a spring suspension for them, which were supplemented by Tecta. They both feature the cantilever frame and are still manufactured by Tecta today, bearing Oskar Schlemmer’s label for faithfully reedited Bauhaus furniture.

• Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Germany (1931)
  
• Stainless Steel frame and cord with wicker
  
• Made in Germany
• Height 104cm / 41"
• Depth 130cm / 51"
• Width 56cm / 22"
• Cord Length: 8m/26' (can be adjusted)
• Notes Cushion and ceiling mount not included. Maximum weight 110kg/230lbs.