Daily Features

Four Centuries of Sitting: University of Oxford Announces its Winning Chair Design for the Bodleian Library

How two British designers created an exclusive chair for one of the world's most beautiful libraries.

By Stela Razzaque, Superscript October 24, 2013

The Bodleian Library is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, dating back to 1602. Its ornately detailed Gothic walls are home to a great archive of treasured literature and scholarly documents. As part of a grand renovation plan for the library, the University of Oxford launched a competition to design a new chair from which some of the world’s most gifted academics will experience the library space.

Barber Osgerby's winning chair pictured inside the Bodleian Library. © Jamie Smith / Bodleian Library

The Bodleian Libraries Chair Competition recently announced its winning design: an elegant oak seat by UK-based design studio Barber Osgerby (Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby), in collaboration with manufacturer Isokon Plus. The victorious chair will be only the third chair design to grace the historic 400-year-old reading room. The last chair iteration was designed in 1936.

The competition brief challenged designers to provide a contemporary response to the library chair with a strong sense of craft and sculptural form. “After spending a day at the library it became apparent there are some pretty unusual requirements for the readers at the Bodleian Libraries,” designers Barber and Osgerby told Co.Design. Readers may sit in the chair for hours on end, so comfort was very important. Another crucial factor was that the chair be completely silent—there is no place for squeaking furniture in Oxford’s prestigious reading rooms.

The winning chair design. © Barber Osgerby

The Books

Furniture Design: An Introduction to Development, Materials and Manufacturing Stuart Lawson

A Taxonomy of Office Chairs Jonathan Olivares

The winning three-legged oak chair drew on extensive local knowledge of the library and its cultural setting. A strong, vertical timber spine forms one of the three legs and echoes the spines of books on shelves. This vertical element is attached to a horseshoe-shaped wooden base that effectively “reduced the vibration and improved the stability of the chair so that it is silent in use,” Barber and Osgerby explained. The frame’s spacious, circular form is echoed in the armrest and sled-like base, resulting in a robust, yet surprisingly lightweight, structure. The designers also identified the rear view of the chair to be especially significant, as this is the most common view of the chair by others when it is in use.

The winning chair will be installed in the newly refurbished library when it reopens in October 2014. The designers were chosen from a pool of 60 other competition entries, including those by Amanda Levete Architects with Herman Miller, and Matthew Hilton with SCP Ltd.

Special attention was paid to the design of the back of the chair. Left to right: Barber Osbergy's winning design, the chair by Amanda Levete Architects, and a design by Matthew Hilton. © Jamie Smith / Bodleian Library

The original library chair, left, the 1936 editions, center, and the three finalists, right (Matthew Hilton/SCP Ltd, Amanda Levete/Herman Miller, Barber Osgerby) on display at the V&A Museum. © Ben Bisek / Bodleian Library

Design After Modernism: Furniture and Interiors 1970-2010 Judith Gura

History of Modern Furniture Design Daniela Karasova

comments powered by Disqus

Announcements

Now is Better by Stefan Sagmeister

Now is Better

By Stefan Sagmeister
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Published: October 2023

Combining art, design, history, and quantitative analysis, transforms data sets into stunning artworks that underscore his positive view of human progress, inspiring us to think about the future with much-needed hope.

Order the book.

Design Emergency: Building a Better Future by Alice Rawsthorn and Paola Antonelli

Design Emergency: Building a Better Future

By Alice Rawsthorn and Paola Antonelli
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Published: May 2022

Rawsthorn and Antonelli tell the stories of the remarkable designers, architects, engineers, artists, scientists, and activists who are at the forefront of positive change worldwide. Focusing on four themes—Technology, Society, Communication, and Ecology—the authors present a unique portrait of how our great creative minds are developing new design solutions to the major challenges of our time, while helping us to benefit from advances in science and technology.

Order the book.

Love Letter to a Garden by Debbie Millman

Love Letter to a Garden

By Debbie Millman
Contributions by Roxane Gay
Publisher: Timber Press
Published: April 15, 2025

From the award-winning artist, designer, and the host of the podcast Design Matters, Debbie Millman, this book tells the visual story of falling in love with gardening—and the philosophies that work conjures. Spread throughout are simple recipes using the garden’s ingredients from Millman’s wife, best-selling author Roxane Gay.

Order the book.

The Picture Book Book: The Art of Seymour Chwast by Seymour Chwast; curated by Steven Heller

The Picture Book Book: The Art of Seymour Chwast

By Seymour Chwast, curated by Steven Heller
Publisher: Gestalten
Published: June 2026

Seymour Chwast, legendary co-founder of Push Pin Studios, reinvented how we see and read picture books. The Picture Book Book gathers over 40 of his works, curated by Steven Heller, and offers a rare look at his playful, incisive approach to visual storytelling. From bold graphics to sly wit, Chwast’s books expanded the boundaries of design and children’s literature alike.

Order the book.

Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall by Alexandra Lange

Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall

By Alexandra Lange
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Published: June 2022

Chronicles postwar architects’ and merchants’ invention of the shopping mall, revealing how the design of these marketplaces played an integral role in their cultural ascent. Publishers Weekly writes, “Contending that malls answer ‘the basic human need’ of bringing people together, influential design critic Lange advocates for retrofitting abandoned shopping centers into college campuses, senior housing, and ‘ethnocentric marketplaces’ catering to immigrant communities. Lucid and well researched, this is an insightful study of an overlooked and undervalued architectural form.”

Order the book.

Die Fläche: Design and Lettering of the Vienna Secession, 1902–1911 (Facsimile Edition) by Diane V. Silverthorne, Dan Reynolds, and Megan Brandow-Faller

Die Fläche: Design and Lettering of the Vienna Secession, 1902–1911 (Facsimile Edition)

By Diane V. Silverthorne, Dan Reynolds, and Megan Brandow-Faller
Publisher: Letterform Archives Books
Published: October 2023

This facsimile edition of Die Fläche, recreates every page of the formative design periodical in full color and at original size, accompanied by essays that contextualize the work, highlighting contributions by pathbreaking women, innovative lettering artists, and key practitioners of the new “surface art,” including Rudolf von Larisch, Alfred Roller, and Wiener Werkstätte founders Koloman Moser and Josef Hoffmann.

Order the book.