The lounge chair was designed by Charles and Ray Eames for the Museum of Modern Art’s competition “International Competition for Low-Cost Furniture Design” in New York in 1948. The competition challenged designers to develop cost effective furniture designs to be used in smaller houses in the postwar era. The guidelines stated that the works “fit the need of modern living, production and merchandizing”. MoMa ended up receiving over 3,000 submissions from all over the world.

The sculptural design of La Chaise was inspired by the ‘Floating Figure’ a work made by sculptor Gaston Lachaise who gave his name to this icon of modern design. You can actually find the original ‘Floating Figure’ at MoMa so Charles and Ray didn’t have to travel far to get their inspiration for the competition.

The La Chaise didn’t win the competition as it was considered too large but it did get a mention for its outstanding form. It was intended to be released by Herman Miller in 1950 but was considered too expensive to produce and was never manufactured. This might have been another reason it didn’t win. It was a competition for low-cos furniture after all.

It took another 40 years until Vitra put La Chaise into production in 1991, first in fiberglass as the original from 1948 but since 2001 Vitra uses polyurethane.

In the same MoMa competition the legendary Art Director of Harper’s Bazaar, Alexey Brodovitch competed with his Floor Chair (model 1211-C). It was a plywood rocking chair that was described as “exceptionally simple and comfortable” made with inexpensive materials and a basic construction. With his Floor Chair Mr. Brodovitch was awarded third prize.