An interpretation of Marcel Breuer's 1928 classic, the Cesca chair.

Chris Hardy's response to Powerhouse Museum's Re-loved exhibition arose from looking at modernist attitudes to adopting new technologies in the early part of last century. Just like Breuer's Cesca chair, one of the first cantilevered chairs brought about by the use of new fabrication techniques, this reinterpretation of the Cesca chair (a modernist classic) uses contemporary generative techniques and rapid prototyping technology as an homage to modernism.

The generative method used is voronoi subdivision of a point cloud. This enabled further meaning to be built into the chair by using an image of the chair's creator to influence the point cloud - Breuer becomes a ghost in the chair. The technology used to build the chair was selective laser sintering (Shapeways). This was used based on its strength characteristics and its ability to be formed quickly and easily based on the quite complex geometry.

The seat and back were sintered in pieces then assembled and attached to an existing frame circa 1970's. It will be interesting to see more furniture modifications such as this that build on an existing components in a post-modern kind of mash-up that also reduces the cost of production.