The "Orbit Chair" by Markus Farner & Walter Grunder for Vitra (designed around 1965) is an excellent example of the Space Age style of the 1960s.
Design & Style Features
The Orbit Chairs are characterized by their forward-looking design language: round, curved fiberglass shells, soft upholstery, and slender, plate-shaped swivel feet.
The Orbit Chairs are characterized by their interplay of plastic (PU foam, polyurethane) and textile covers (e.g., Hopsak) in muted colors such as dark brown, and more rarely in bolder shades. These materials make the chair light while simultaneously giving it a solid form.
The Orbit Chairs were designed by the Swiss designers Markus Farner and Walter Grunder.
Production began by Herman Miller & Vitra around 1965. This marks a period in which design and furniture making were strongly influenced by the optimism of modernism, with technology, new materials, and futuristic forms playing a major role.
The Orbit Chairs are comparatively rare today and are considered sought-after vintage design objects among collectors.