From futuristic design icon to environmental villain – the 80-year history of the plastic chair

By Geoff Isaac, Research Fellow, Design, Architecture and Building, University of Technology Sydney

What springs to mind when you’re asked to think of plastic chairs? Do you picture the ubiquitous lightweight, stackable polypropylene chair sold cheaply in hardware stores worldwide?

Or perhaps you picture something more glamorous, such as Shiro Kuramata’s Miss Blanche (1988). This limited-edition artwork, featuring imitation roses suspended in acrylic resin, now sells for more than US$500,000 at…

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