Olivares Aluminum Chair

Jonathan Olivares’ meticulously executed design brings a refined sculptural presence to indoor and outdoor environments alike. The gracefully contoured form is carefully shaped to offer maximum comfort and the die cast aluminum shell is available in a palette of bright, contemporary colors.

Product story

After a series of experiments with hydro-forming, stamping, and other means of manipulating metal, Jonathan Olivares and team posed a hypothesis: what if we could cast this chair in a single piece of material — not only for ergonomic comfort, but to reduce cost and make the chair as thin as feasible. Ultimately it was the aluminum supplier that suggested this might work.

The chair’s shape evolved in order to maximize structure and hit the sweet spot in terms of weight. Olivares’s team continuously measured against the Bertoia side chair (15 lbs.) until shavings here, adjustments there yielded the perfect weight: the final product is just under 15 lbs.

Jonathan Olivares

Jonathan Olivares was born in Boston in 1981 and graduated from Pratt Institute. One of his earliest projects, after founding his design practice in Los Angeles. was a survey of the U.S. furniture industry written for Domus. That assignment connected Olivares directly to Knoll, and soon after the company commissioned him to conduct a two-year research project on the history of the office chair. Olivares’ A Taxonomy of Office Chairs, which was published in 2011, is the culmination of that research. In 2012, Olivares again partnered with Knoll, introducing the Olivares Aluminum Chair, which received the GOOD Design Award from the Chicago Athenaeum.

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Additional Info

Construction and Details

Suitable for outdoor use
Shell is constructed of die-cast aluminum with outdoor powder coat paint
Leg tenons are integrated in the shell and a subtle reveal transitions the shell to the extruded aluminum legs
Legs are secured to the shell using epoxy and stainless steel fasteners
Chairs stack 6 high on the floor
Stacking bumper distributes the chair’s weight over a wide area
Designer’s signature and the KnollStudio logo are located under the seat
Nylon glides included