Milan 2016: Austrian product designer Thomas Feichtner has collaborated with a group of craftspeople to create a minimal wooden chair using traditional carpentry techniques.
Feichtner created the A-Chair together with members of the Werkraum Bregenzerwald, a cooperative of master craftspeople in Bregenz.

They set out to turn one of the unrealised sketches from a recent exhibition of the designer's work into a finished product.
The idea they chose to develop was for a minimal chair that used the least material possible while still retaining its function.

"When I looked at the silhouette of a sitting person, I realised that you only need the front part of the seating shell and just one contact point on the back to get a short rest," said Feichtner. "I minimised the chair by using one diameter of squared timber which is bevelled at the back."

In order to get a smooth finish, the designer worked with Austrian furniture maker Schmidinger Möbelbau who created a series of traditional wood joints for the chair.
The simple wood connections allow the sides to be created separately from the seat and then joined afterwards, meaning the chair can be efficiently mass-produced.

A-Chair, named for the typographic shape of the chair from side-on, is made from beech wood but will eventually be on sale in various colours and other types of wood.

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