Stylish plastic seating: The Calla chair by William Sawaya

This is a calla lily, a beautiful flower that inspired the design of the Calla chair by William Sawaya. See the resemblance between the two? If you do, then good for you. If you don’t, that’s okay; I really don’t, either. But that doesn’t matter. What’s important is that it played a starring role in Sawaya’s creation of a beautiful and functional chair that works in either residential or commercial settings.

The Calla chair that Sawaya designed for Heller earned him the 2003 ID Annual Design Review Distinction Award. It is made from one piece modified polypropylene that is reinforced with fiberglass, but it is definitely more than your average monobloc chair. In fact, an architectural magazine in Germany called it probably the most dynamic piece of monobloc furniture ever created.

This injection molded chair measures 80 cm high, 56 cm wide and 60 cm deep. The seat height is 47 cm. It weighs just 3.9 kilos and is stackable. They would be most suitable for use as something like commercial café chairs or some other similar application because of their light weight and ability to save space. Also, they can be used either indoors or outdoors. They come in several colors: white, black, silver, and red.

Sawaya’s goal with the Calla chair was to create something that would integrate his knowledge about “the composition, weight, resistance, and technology of plastic into an evocative chair with sex appeal and comfort in a form unlike any other plastic chair.” It certainly looks like he succeeded. This Lebanese-born Italian believes that furniture design is an important part of a coherent effort in living culture. The design company he founded with Paolo Moroni, aptly called Sawaya & Moroni, produces designs that are “free from the constraints of trendiness.” Trendy, yes, that’s what the Calla chair surely is.