Dunja Weber: Stacking Soba

I’ll admit to having developed a fascination with the stacking chair. It is, in itself, a design challenge. A fairly standard item for some time, it has the potential to be redeveloped into something (much) better. Through rethinking its function and offering a fresh interpretation of this common object, the stacking chair can become something all-together new. Young designer Dunja Weber’s most recent project Soba, which debuted at Milan’s Salone, has successfully accomplished this feat.

Soba more closely resembles a comfortable armchair than a traditional stacking chair, having diverged from the temporal, uncomfortable appearance ever-present in most stacking chairs. It is not to be stashed away when the need for additional seating is removed. The form brings to mind Patricia Urquiola’s Tropicalia chair, though the materiality and function differ. Powder coated metal rods create the frame while woven PVC spaghetti makes up the seat and backrest. The patterned aesthetic of Soba’s woven seat is a composition of solid and void; allowing the chair to feel simultaneously substantial and light. The designer works well with color, evident in the neutral but complimentary tones of the chair.

Dunja Weber is a young industrial designer, born in Switzerland into a family of artists and educated at Glasgow School of Art. In an interview with Azure Magazine, Dunja explains, “It’s an aesthetic decision, but things tend to be stronger when they’re simple – they stay in your mind better. Sometimes people don’t realize how much work goes into it; nevertheless I think it’s worth going in that direction.” Some of her other designs include Fancy Fency, a flexible room-divider, Shoo: a modular shoe rack and Hulahoops, a set of stacking glasses. She says that she aspire to designs objects and furniture that are simple without being boring.

My fascination with the stacking chair has been manifested through 3Rings. Jang Yoon addressed this challenge with his prototype of the Janus chair, serving double duty as a stacking chair and folding chair (at least partly). Though I generally don’t choose favorites (at least outright), Dunja Weber’s Soba chair is hard to beat. Soba is a stacking chair worthy of a prominent place within any home.