Volkshaus Lounge Chair

The Volkshaus range of furniture comprises a solid oak lounge chair and stool with seats and backrests of hard-wearing cord, as well as a matching side table. The complex construction of the frames with intersecting X-shapes of square timber lends the furniture its architectural expression. Due to their asymmetry, the pieces appear different from every angle. The central design feature of the series is the point at which the wooden legs intersect and interlock: this wooden connection appears simple, but is in fact highly complex. It was developed during a comprehensive research process by Herzog & de Meuron. Inspired by traditional wooden joints in Japanese architecture, this ingenious construction principle lends the furniture its sculptural character. The Volkshaus series is perfect wherever relaxed seating is desired – in personal interiors or in prestigious waiting areas, lobbies or hotel rooms. The Lounge Chair, Stool and Side Table can be found, for example, in the Volkshaus Basel boutique hotel, which was designed by Herzog & de Meuron and to which the collection owes its name.

Herzog & de Meuron was founded in 1978 by the two architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron in Basel. Today, the office is managed by the two founders together with the senior partners Christine Binswanger, Ascan Mergenthaler, Stefan Marbach, Esther Zusteg, and Jason Frantzen. An international team of almost 500 employees, including the two founders, five senior partners, ten partners, and 41 associates is working on projects across Europe, North and South America, and Asia. Herzog & de Meuron’s headquarters are located in Basel, with branch offices in London, New York, Hong Kong, Berlin and Copenhagen.

The renowned office has designed a large palette of projects that range in scale from private homes to urban planning. Many of the projects are public institutions such as museums, stadiums and hospitals, including the Tate Gallery of Modern Art in London, the M+ Museum for Visual Culture in Hong Kong, the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), the Allianz Arena in Munich and the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. The work of Herzog & de Meuron has received multiple awards, among them the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the European Cultural Prize and the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Award.