British designer Michael Young's LessThanFive carbon fibre chair for US-based furniture company Coalesse is launching after two years of development.
The chair is named for the fact that it weighs less than five pounds (two kilograms), so it can be easily moved and stacked.
Originally debuted during Milan design week in 2014, the chair has a thin profile and curving back with angled arm supports and legs and is manufactured as a single piece – removing the need for joints and fixings.
LessThanFive is the first time Coalesse has made a product with carbon fibre, which is still not widely used in the furniture industry.
"The chair's structure and form were developed as a result of working with a factory that is known for exceptional high performance bicycles," Young told Dezeen. "This technology is ideal for the development of an exceedingly lightweight stacking chair."
"We wanted to design a carbon fiber chair that is truly functional and ergonomic," he added.
For LessThanFive, sheets of carbon fiber are woven together and then layered in a heated mold, where they are left to set. The chair is polished by hand to achieve the final finish.
After initially showing the chair in Milan and at Clerkenwell Design Week in 2015, Coalesse is ready to bring the pieces to market after perfecting their manufacturing process.
"There are technical challenges with all new projects and especially when the concept involves a new material and a new process," John Hamilton, design director for Coalesse, told Dezeen.
"This project had many challenges for us as we didn't have benchmarks for many of the details in this chair," he added.
"We needed to develop new standards for finishing, for inspecting, for delivering, and for how the product will be used and these proved to be tougher than just producing a beautiful finished product."
The LessThanFive chair is available in six standard colours and finishes, including matte blue, red fade, light and dark fades, copper gloss, and carbon weave.
Additional colours can be requested and logos and other graphics can also be added.
The chairs will officially go on sale on 28 February.
Coalesse is a boutique division of the American office furniture company Steelcase that specializes in workplace furnishings that also can be used at home.
Michael Young has designed a wide variety of furniture and consumer products, ranging from mirror finished faucets, to portable speakers with a satchel, to wooden dining chairs.
Young is the subject of an exhibition, AL(L) Projects in Aluminum, at the Centre d'Innovation et Design at Grand Hornu in Hornu, Belgium.