Panton

Although the concept of a cantilever chair dates from the 1920’s, Verner Panton brings a new perspective to it with the Panton Chair. The challenge of making an S-shaped chair in a single piece of plastic was evident and making the chair’s design usable and producible took years and several different versions, until it was finally commercialized in 1967. The 1960’s were a time of revolutionary ideas in design, reflecting the world around it, and plastic was used more in furniture because of its versatility as a material. The Panton Chair was iconic, the first mass produced cantilever chair that could be used inside and outside and became very popular very quickly. Nowadays, the Panton is considered a design classic, having had editions in many different materials – some of which can be found here in the museum - and it encourages other designers to experiment with the cantilever format, that has since expanded its realm of possibilities and shapes with the evolution of techniques and materials over the years.