Arper Celebrates 10-Year Anniversary of Lina Bo Bardi’s Iconic Bowl Chair
This month, Arper is celebrating the ten-year anniversary of the classic Bardi’s Bowl Chair – designed by Italian-Brazilian architect Lina Bo Bardi in 1951, and produced for the first time by Arper in 2012 in a limited edition of only 500 pieces.
Designed in 1951 in Bo Bardi’s adopted home of Brazil, the Bardi Bowl Chair is an icon for its adaptive style. Like much of Bo Bardi’s work, the Bowl Chair was not created to be a luxury product, valued for its design value alone, but as an affordable and flexible object created to seamlessly integrate into any environment. There are indications that the Bowl Chair was meant to be manufactured and mass-produced in the 1950’s, however despite Bo Bardi’s various attempts, the industrial production of the chair was never completed. Bo Bardi did not leave instructions on the precise measurements or details of the design.
Decades later, Arper identified itself in the design approach of Lina Bo Bardi, her values and vision, hence the decision to bring to light her work and contribution both in terms of design and history. Bardi’s Bowl chair was developed in collaboration with the Sao Paulo-based Instituto Bardi, whose aim is to protect and promote the precious work of Lina Bo Bardi. Only two original iterations of the chair are left today at the “Glass House,” Bo Bardi’s former residence and now headquarters of the Instituto Bardi.
