Industrial designer Gudmundur Ludvik Re-Thinks the Folding Chair

“Why should a folding chair be a compromise?” asks Icelandic industrial designer Gudmundur Ludvik. “For decades, folding chairs have been designed around storage and transport, often at the expense of comfort and everyday use.” Ludvik aimed to change that with his Backflip chair. ” The ambition was to approach the typology from the opposite direction — to create a good chair first, and a folding chair second. The result is a chair that moves easily between use and storage while maintaining the comfort, character and presence expected from everyday furniture.” To accomplish his desired arrangement of components, Ludvik had to jettison the conventional hinging points. Instead he developed a hinge mechanism concealed by the backrest. It makes folding/unfolding the chair a nifty one-handed operation:”Rather than exposing the technical complexity, the construction allows the chair to maintain a calm and familiar appearance. The mechanism becomes part of the structure rather than an addition to it. This approach made it possible to achieve a level of comfort and visual simplicity rarely associated with folding furniture.” The Backflip is in production by Hay.