Architecture You Can Sit On

Forget the skyscrapers. Forget the cathedrals, museums and airports. The greatest architects of the twentieth century did not stop at buildings. They designed lamps, tables, sofas, beds and chairs. And whether designing a high-rise or a footstool, they expressed the same lofty ideals.

For Arts and Crafts and Prairie School architects working in the early twentieth century, harmony was the key. Modernist designers, on the other hand, reached for universality. The two concepts may seem similar, but they produced a very different kind of furniture.

Here are four famous chairs by four master architects. Although designed decades ago, each seems sleek and contemporary today. And if you like them, you can buy them. Check our index of Furniture by Great Architects for companies that specialize in reproduction designs. For the chairs shown here, expect to pay from $500 to $1900 US. See the chairs->

Index: Architecture You Can Sit On

1. Furniture By Famous Architects
2. The "Barrel Chair" by Frank Lloyd Wright
3. The "Hill House Chair" By Charles Rennie Mackintosh
4. Modernist Ideas
5. The "Barcelona Chair" by Mies van der Rohe
6. The "Nonconformist Chair" by Eileen Gray