This chair is one of the most famous chairs within the café furniture industry. Manufactured originally by Thonet, it has also been named the bistro chair, which in the café furniture industry is quite a coveted title. Designed by Michael Thonet in the 19^th century using a unique steam-bending technology, also known as bentwood that during that time required years to perfect and master. It has a simple design and affordability it has been one of the bestselling chairs on the market, with a total of 50 million sold between 1860 and 1930 and since then the sales have kept on coming.

The chair has been made from six pieces of wood with a total of 10 screws to hold the cafe chair together with only 2 nuts. The wood is made from beech wood, that are heated to 100 degrees Celsius and pressed into cast-iron moulds. They are then dried at 70 degrees for just under a day to make sure that they are strong and robust. The reason that these bistro chairs were sold at an affordable price was because the materials used are cheap and the labour used are mainly unskilled.

This chair has been widely renowned as a design classic. When it was first produced it earned a gold medal in the 1867 World Exposition in Paris and has been praised by some of the worlds best and creative designers. For example Le Corbusier has been recorded in saying “Never was a better and more elegant design and a more precisely crafted and practical item created.”

In recent years, 2009 to be precise the chair was redesigned and remanufactured by the English designer James Irvine and retailed from Muji, a Japanese company. Roland Ohnacker, the managing director of Thonet stated that the aim of this was to “help 18 to 35 year olds enter the world of Thornet”

In today’s cafés and restaurants, we tend to see furniture that has been mass produced and often feature similar styles. For instance we see a lot of chairs made in the 50s and 60s that are iconic however we don’t see that many made recently that stand the test of time. There are still designers out there bringing café furniture design back into fashion and below are a couple that have been nominated for the student category at The Edge 2012 in Sydney next month.

A cafe chair made out of belts and a cafe barstool which can have any pattern cut into it are the two ideas in question. Alex Lee, the creator of the belt chair seems to believe that his café chair made from belts was nominated for its originality.

‘‘As students we can afford to be creative and push the boundaries like I have with this design,’’ the 30 year old designer said. ‘‘But once we’re working in the industry we’ll be more limited by commercial constraints. So this is a great opportunity to show my design aesthetic off to potential contacts such as interior designers and decorators.’’

He claimed that when he was younger his brother and he used to play around modifying old furniture. This could have been office furniture, café furniture or domestic furniture, he claims that he was attracted to taking things apart and being able to create new pieces.

The other piece of café furniture that has been nominated is a barstool that can have bespoke designs added by cutting at the sides. The Bent stool is made from 4 equilateral triangles that have been riveted together.

The young 22 year old designer claims that he got inspiration for the design from the demand of café and restaurant owners looking for different and fashionable designs. As it stands he has managed to find a manufacturer for the furniture in Hong Kong however he plans to change the material used to Aluminium to make the chair lighter and ready for commercial production.

It is quite common to have a certain amount of hand luggage when entering a café. It comes as no surprise then that designer Kaman Tung has designed café furniture that actually holds luggage within the chair to avoid it becoming lost. This collection includes 3 café chairs and a café table that have a timber frame and finished in white plastic. These chairs have been specifically designed for outdoor public spaces, restaurant areas and cafes.

The idea for these café chairs and table came from the notion that people have the need to place their coats or luggage on the back of the chairs or on the floor. The idea is that with these chairs, it reduces the worry that items might be stolen and articles don’t have to be placed on a really dirty floor. For example, in bars and restaurants, it seems that we always put our coats on the back of our chairs. With this in mind, The Hanger Chair is one solution. The chair looks like a normal outdoor chair, however has a branch like feature that extends out over the back of the chair and provides a hanger for long coats and jackets. The reason for this is that many coats tend to be too long for the chairs back to hang on and can touch the dirty floor from time to time.

The Case Chair is for people who carry suitcases or laptops with them. There is a side compartment with this chair that can house a these precious items eliminating the worry that these could be stolen. Also with these items placed at the side of the person, it reduces the risk of the user forgetting them before they leave.

The table is a glass table that has a recessed area underneath the top that has been designed to house wallets and personal items that are designed to increase comfort when sitting down.