Joris Laarman, Microstructures Adaptation Chair (Long Cell) Prototype, 2014. 3-D-printed polyamide and copper coating; 28 3/8 × 27 1/2 × 30 1/4 in. Denver Art Museum: Funds from Design Council of the Denver Art Museum, 2015.263. © Joris Laarman

height: 28 3/8 in, 72.0725 cm; width: 27 1/2 in, 69.85 cm; depth: 30 1/4 in, 76.835 cm

Edition of 12, Prototype

Architecture and Design

Architecture and Design

Joris Laarman’s Microstructures series of chairs investigates the potential of emerging technologies on the future of design. Laarman engineered each chair from the level of its smallest component unit, or cell, imitating the way nature creates the most efficient structures possible. Combining parametric design, which generates forms depending on the behavior of a computer algorithm in response to a set of assigned parameters, with 3-D printing, Laarman formed complex, functional, and highly poetic furniture in different materials. According to the designer, “the complexity that you get with these generative parametric design tools is, most of the time, too complicated for industrial machines to fabricate. Digital fabrication allows us to create much more complicated objects.”

The Adaptation chair’s plantlike structure appears to rise organically to serve its various needs. The chair is composed of vertical cells that start at the bottom like legs and eventually develop into branches, like a tree, to minimize any structural stress. The branches subdivide even further to form and support the chair’s seat structure. Each component, while highly intricate, is essential to the whole. The final form is made of 3-D-printed polyamide parts that are assembled and coated with copper to give it structural strength and an aesthetic allure.

Purchased 2015 from the designer through (Friedman Benda Gallery, New York) by the Denver Art Museum.

• "Joris Laarman Lab: Bits and Crafts"—Friedman Benda, New York, NY, 5/1 - 6/14/2014
• "Unseated: Contemporary Chairs Reimagined"—Denver Art Museum, 5/1/2016 - 11/12/2017
• “By Design: Stories and Ideas Behind Objects” — Denver Art Museum, 10/24/2021 – 12/5/2022
• “By Design: Stories and Ideas Behind Objects (1st Rotation)” — Denver Art Museum, 12/16/2022 – 1/31/2024