Norwegian designer Falke Svatun has created a dining chair with a thin backrest that curves around its sitter like a shell (+ slideshow).

Designed for Danish brand Menu, the Synnes Chair is made from form-pressed plywood. A six-millimetre-thin section of it is used for the backrest, which is nearly flat but curves sharply inwards at the sides of the chair.

According to Svatun, this construction "offers comfort as well as sturdiness". The backrest is pinned to the seat with dowels.

Svatun took inspiration from both spindle-back and laminate chairs for the Synnes. The spindle-back influence is visible in the chair's more sturdy base, also made from form-pressed plywood.

Svatun described the design as "a modern take on a traditional Scandinavian dining chair". Available in natural oak and stained ash, it can come upholstered with fabric or leather.

Oslo-based Svatun creates furniture, lighting and accessories with a Minimalistic approach. His previous work includes a range of stoneware vessels with cut-out bases, enabling them to balance on the edge of shelves or windowsills.

Menu is set to launch its full collection of furniture and accessories at this September's edition of Maison&Objet.

It includes a Bauhaus-inspired coat hanger by Stockholm-based design studio Afteroom and a glass carafe with a brass lid by Norm Architects.

Photography is by Lasse Fløde.