Sérgio Rodrigues – Mole Armchair (1957)

In the words of his designer, Mole armchair “is a super lazy chair”!

The iconic Mole was designed in 1957 by the Brazilian architect and designer Sérgio Rodrigues (Rio de Janeiro, 1927-2014). Forerunner of fashion photography in Brazil, photographer Otto Stupakoff (São Paulo, 1935 – 2009), commissioned a chair that people would feel ‘comfortable and comfortable’, he repeated.  Sitting on such chair should be an experience of feeling at ease and completely relaxed.

The Mole chair was a statement against the decorating lifestyle in the 1960s. The designer’s irreverence flouted all the standards at the time, creating the Mole chair in Dalbergia nigra, an extremely durable and resistant wood also known as Brazilian rosewood.

Also known as Sheriff, the armchair entered the list of design icons in 1961, when it won the 4th International Furniture Design Contest in Cantù, Italy for allowing the real way to sit. Currently, it is part of the permanent collection of the Museu da Casa Brasileira, in São Paulo, and MoMA in New York.

Sérgio Rodrigues designed around 1200 furniture pieces, mostly chairs, in more than 60 years of professional life. He brought the Brazilian identity to his design, both in the drawings and in the traditional materials like leather, straw and wood, extolling Brazilian and indigenous culture. Through the knowledge of the techniques of Brazilian carpentry, he revealed mastery regarding constructive solutions of his furniture. As a pioneer in the production of prefabricated houses in Brazil, he was the founding partner of the furniture industry OCA which produced the Mole chair.

Author: Fátima Pombo

Photo: http://archivio.fuorisalone.it/2017/en/events/264/2017-Celebrating-60-years-of-Mole-Armchair-The-chair-that-changed-the-way-of-sitting