Sunball Chair

We have always been attracted to this flamboyant piece of modern furniture designed in the late 1960's. The Sunball Chair was designed by Gunter Ferdinand Ris & Herbert Selldorf in 1969 for Rosenthal in (West) Germany. Intended to be a space age sphere for outdoor relaxation and perhaps communal dwelling since it comfortably seated two people. The Sunball chair was an an outdoor furniture object with two flexible overlapping hemispheres that could be closed and opened for the purpose of relaxing and sunbathing.



The Sunball chair is another great icon of Space Age design which was modeled after the astronaut's helmets used during hte moon landing. Similar look-a-like creations include the Panasonic Panapet, JVC and Nivico Videosphere TV, Weltron 8-Track Player, Eero Aarnio's Ball Chair and Bubble Chair and perhaps even the Panasonic Flying Saucer TV TR-005. All of the above were seriously influenced by the Space Age. The Sunball became unpopular after the oil cricis in 1973 (as well as most other modern design items) and few pieces of this modern chair were every manufactured (perhaps onl 50) and the Sunball Chair can nowadays occasionally be found at European auction houses including this one, recently offered at Quittenbaum in Germany.

More space age design icons available through:
http://nova68.com