Bench

Between 1969 and 1973, architect Frank Gehry developed and produced his first line of cardboard furniture. The present pair of chairs and bench are from that maiden furniture line known as "Easy Edges." Gehry had been searching for an inexpensive alternative to costly furniture and found the solution in the strength and simplicity of cardboard. The process of fabrication is straightforward: sheets of corrugated cardboard are glued together into a stack which can then be cut to any form with a jigsaw...the surfaces of exposed corrugation are tough...if stained or marred, they can be spot-sanded...Permutations of shape and function appear boundless. Says Gehry of his time in the furniture business: 'I love working with materials directly. The cardboard furniture allowed that to happen. I could design a shape and build it in the same day. Test it. Refine it. And the next day build another one. The two or three years I spent doing that were some of the most rewarding times of my life'" (M. Andrews, Frank Gehry: Buildings and Projects, New York, 1985, p. 64).