Hat Trick™ Chair

Designed by Frank Gehry

Frank Gehry 1990
Inspired by the surprising strength of the apple crates he had played on as a child, Frank Gehry created this thoroughly original collection of bentwood chair and table designs. Gehry's architecture draws its strength from the sculptural approach with which he has expanded the vocabulary of buildings. Bringing this same approach to furniture, Gehry constructed the entire collection with interwoven strips of maple. The ribbon-like designs transcend the conventions of style by focusing, as the great modernists did, on the essential challenge of deriving form from function.

Additional Info
Construction and Details
- Available with arms that can be added or removed with bolts
- Available with "shower cap-style cushion in a range of KnollTextiles and Spinneybeck® leathers
- Constructed of hard white maple veneer strips, laminated 6 to 9 thick with high-bonding urea glue
- Thermo-set assembly glue provides structural rigidity without the need for metal connectors
- Chair back flexes for added comfort
- Contoured seat is constructed of cross-ply maple for rigidity
- Clear plastic glides with matte frost finish included
- The underside of each piece is embossed with the Knoll logo and Frank Gehry's signature

Neither party knew what lay ahead when Frank Gehry came to Knoll in 1989 with an idea for a new generation of bentwood furniture inspired by the simple bushel basket. Despite the uncertainty, a studio was set up and, fueled by mutual optimism, the investigation began.
"Everything I've always done has been a reaction against the usual expectations of the furniture market. I wanted the chair to come out of my own work, the shapes of my buildings... What the Knoll people first said to me was, 'It probably won't work, but maybe it will. You've been thinking about it. Something will come of it.' All bentwood furniture until now has relied on a thick and heavy main structure and then an intermediary structure for the seating. The difference in my chairs is that structure and the seat are formed of the same incredibly lightweight slender wood strips, which serve both functions. What makes this all work and gives it extraordinary strength is the interwoven, basket-like character of the design... It really is possible to make bentwood furniture pliable, and springy and light.*
After three years of experimentation and exploration, the collection was debuted in the Frank Gehry: New Furniture Prototypes show at The Museum of Modern Art in New York.
*From an interview originally run in Architectural Record (c) February 1992, The McGraw-Hill Companies. www.architecturalrecord.com.