Robin Day

Buckinghamshire-born Robin Day began his career in design by winning a scholarship to study at the Royal College of Art, where he met his wife, textile-designer Lucienne Day. His first great industrial success came in partnership with fellow designer Clive Latimer when the duo won MoMA’s 1948 International Competition for Low-Cost Furniture. The competition sparked the interest of furniture producer S. Hille & Co. and was the basis of their strong 30-year partnership. Collaborating with Hille gave Day the freedom to experiment with innovative techniques and materials that would lower the cost of design, making it available to all.

Experimenting with materials such as moulded plywood and tubular steel, it was his work with injection-moulding that made Robin Day a celebrated name across the globe. Released in 1963, the Polypropylene Stacking Chair was immediately lauded as “the most significant development in British mass-produced chair design since the war” by the Architects’ Journal. Celebrated for its almost indestructible construction, tens of millions of the chair have been sold across the globe since 1963. Epitomising Day’s low-cost, multipurpose approach to design, the chair is considered a true design classic.