London-based architecture studio Carmody Groarke has teamed up with designer Joe Pipal to produce a seat inspired by early 20th-century bentwood bistro chairs.

Pipal and Carmody Groarke set out to create a chair with a simple, comfortable and lightweight form inspired by the early twentieth-century bentwood bistro chairs produced by Thonet, Mundus and JJ Kohn.

A series of wooden prototypes were produced in Carmody Groarke's studio workshop before the designers arrived at the final form.

The resulting design, named Chair 182, is constructed entirely from stained and waxed CNC-cut plywood, and is available red and black stains as well as a natural finish. Robust, flexible cork lined joints are used in place of screw fixings.

"Choosing a material to work with affected the form that the chair has taken, how it performs and even the visual signals it offers as to how comfortable it is," explained the designers.

The launch of Chair 182 follows the completion of a series of successful restaurant projects by Carmody Groarke, including Studio East Dining and The Filling Station.

Other designs completed by the 40-strong studio this year, include a top-lit members' room at the Victoria & Albert Museum – where the chair is used – and a cave-like interior made from sprayed paper pulp for this year's Designs of the Year exhibition at the Design Museum.

Most recently, the firm won planning permission for a 20-storey hotel tower in London's Paddington, and revealed that an art centre in Sheffield's Park Hill Estate, and a see-through hood over Charles Rennie Mackintosh's Hill House in Helensburgh, Scotland, are both in the works.

Photography is by Luke Hayes.