Product news: British designer Benjamin Hubert has created a chair with a hammock-like back for Italian furniture brand Moroso.
Called Cradle, the design is a cross between an upholstered lounge chair and a flexible hammock.
The steel frame of the hammock supports a textile mesh, which has been CNC-cut to allow it to stretch around the sitter's shape.
"The chair's aesthetic is purposefully architectural with a sharp rectilinear backrest contrasted with a softer seating area," explains Hubert.
The chair was launched in Milan last month alongside another of chair by Hubert for Moroso, which looks as if it's wrapped in a cloak – see all Dezeen's coverage of Milan 2013.
Other designs by Hubert we've featured lately include a metal frame armchair that weighs only three kilograms and a family of terracotta pots with rubber lids – see all design by Benjamin Hubert.
Other Moroso furniture we've published includes Patricia Urquiola's chairs with backrests wrapped in rush and Nendo's chair shaped like a stiletto heel – see all furniture by Moroso.
Here's some more information from the designer:
Cradle is a new lounge chair launching at Salone Internazionale del Mobile in April 2013. The project is the result of a close collaboration between Benjamin Hubert and Italian brand Moroso.
The product is a unique blend of two typologies of seating – a net structured hammock and a conventional upholstered lounge chair. The chair's aesthetic is purposefully architectural with a sharp rectilinear backrest contrasted with a softer seating area, breaking traditional rules of seating typology and styling.
The chair stems from the studio's materials-driven, process-led industrial design approach, research into the construction of mesh materials, and a study of the relationships between traditional seating components.
Cradle utilises a custom-made cut pattern that allows a non-elastic textile to stretch in a controlled manner in a three dimensional form. This allows for the correct tension to comfortably support the body and both visually and physically reduces the product's weight and cost.
The chair comprises a metal frame supporting a non-elastic textile with a geometric cut pattern, which cradles an upholstered seat block.
Materials: CNC-cut Kvadrat textile mesh, steel frame, moulded polyurethane, Kvadrat textile