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The Evolution of Bean Bag Chairs: From Invention to Production.Bean bag chairs are a product of the1960’s and mark the evolution of the plastics industry. The plastics industry took off starting in the 1950’s and by the 60’s, people around the world were discovering innovative and useful applications for this new type of material. One of the first applications to fully utilize the use of plastics was the furniture industry. Cutting edge architects, interior designers and furniture developers quickly realized that plastics could offer boundless design possibilities and could be molded, formed and stretched into just about any design configuration. Making this new age material even more attractive was it’s structural strength and durability.
European designers quickly pulled ahead of the pack in using plastics technology in furniture. In Italy in 1968, a team of Italian furniture designers working for the Zanotta company, created an idea for a brand new chair. The design team for the chair consisted of three people by the names of Gatti, Teodara and Paolini. They took a vinyl bag and filled it with polyurethane plastic beads, or pellets. This chair had no specific form of its own and was perfectly molded to the person that sat in it. The Italian designers liked the individualistic approach that the chair offered and name it “Sacco”. Thus the bean bag chair was born.
The Sacco bean bag chair marked a shift in chair design. Prior to its development, chairs were based on the notion of pre-conceiving the best shape and support design for all. Basically a hard and rigid, “one-size-fits all” approach was taken. The development of bean bag chairs turned away from this model and offered a non-formed piece of furniture that could be placed on the floor and be allowed to take its form from the person that sits in the chair. Its design mirrors the spirit of the day, which was one of strong individualism and loose or fluid social settings. Lounging on the floor in a bean bag chair typified this relaxed, casual and loose atmosphere. In fact, furniture historians say that the Sacco chair perfectly expressed the “do-it-yourself” attitude and the “no boundary lifestyle” of the late 1960s.
Bean bag chairs were first marketed in Europe and then spread to wild popularity in the USA. This post modern piece of furniture was quickly realized as a great chair not only for adults, but also children. It was the application as a piece of child’s furniture that drove the bean bag chair into the lexicon of the average American and has allowed the chair to remain popular ever since its inception. Bean bags chairs have since been arguably the most popular piece of children’s furniture developed in the twentieth century. It is atop a list that includes bunk beds and even sofas.
Bean bag chairs have continued to evolve since the day the Sacco chair was first developed. Today’s bean bag chairs now come in a variety of shapes, sizes, fabrics and fill. Chairs are now available to formed shapes, like a pear or teardrop. Liners are now easier to maintain and safety features have been incorporated into the zipper design to make the chair child-proof. Fabric choices have been greatly expanded since 1960’s. A vinyl bean bag chair is but one option. Other choices include leather, denim, cotton, faux fur and suede. Even bean bag fill options have expanded in selection. There are now a number of options available to the consumer including environmentally friendly beans (or pellets) and even foam filled bean bags.
It will be interesting to see how this versatile piece of furniture continues to develop in the future. Design improvements and increased consumer options will no doubt carry bean bag chairs well into the twenty-first century.
Additional Reading:
About Bean Bag Furniture
Why Buy A Bean Bag Chair
Childrens Bean Bags Design
Camouflage Bean Bag Chairs
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