Taichiro Nakay Reupholstered Blue Armchair in Cherry

Taichiro Nakay (Nakai) for La Permanente Mobili La Permanente Mobili Cantù, armchair, cherry, reupholstered in Evolution 21 - Toscane Blue - 12, Italy, 1955

Taichiro Nakay is an incredibly talented Japanese designer who is mostly known for his participation at the Selettiva del Mobili competition in Cantù. During the twentieth century, Cantu was considered the Italian city of furniture. However, after the war, Cantu was unable to catch up with the rapid changes and advances and there were more foreign countries such as Scandinavia who, with their styles, grew in popularity and formed a massive competition for Cantu. Therefore, Cantu needed to renewal their designs that were often outdated, in order to stay up to date with trends and gain new popularity. In the spring of 1954, the board of Cantu decided to launch an international prize competition for furniture designers that would in order to revive the economy of the local design and draw attention to Cantu. The “Selettiva del Mobile” was born and would be organized every two years up until 1975. Set up as a real international competition, it brought together designers from all over the world such as Franco Albini, Gio Ponti, Ico Parisi, Paolo Buffa, Ettore Sotssas, BBPR, and many others. The selection for received projects was done by the Concorso Internazionale del Mobili, a highly qualified jury.

Taichiro Nakay participated during the edition from 17th September to 5th of October 1955, where he presented these chairs. Overall, the 1955 edition was incredibly interesting thanks to the exceptional jury consisting of Gio Ponti, Alvar Aalto, Carlo De Carli and Finn Juhl. It was furthermore possible to win prices. As did Taichiro Nakay. With his presentation of a living room design, Nakay won a special prize together with Finish designer Ilmari Tapiovaraa and the Milanese architect Eugenia Alberti Reggio. It is easily understandable why Nakay had attracted the attention of the jury. With his salon, he had analyzed the market clearly and he was able to create designs with Japanese principles as well Italian constraints. His lines are simple and clean yet energetic and organic, all characteristic for Japanese creations. However, the clean lines in for instance his chairs, are reminiscent of the designs by Gio Ponti. The gorgeous lounge chairs have an open and elegant design with tapered legs and organic feeling armrests. The seats are reupholstered in a fine blue zig-zag fabric by Evolution 21.

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