NYC Subway Offspring Chair
NYC Subway Offspring Chair
MoMA Exclusive: A New York public icon, ready to live in your home. Crafted in the Netherlands and produced in a limited edition of 25, the NYC Subway Chair pays homage to the benches designed by Robert Iezzi in the early 1970s for the NYC subway system. Iezzi was commissioned by the New York Port Authority to create a sustainable bench for waiting passengers on public transport around the Hudson River. Since then, these long sold wooden benches have been iconic in the New York Underground.
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DesignerHieke Aardema
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Size32h x 24w x 20.5"d
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MaterialLacquered MDF
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Year of Design2020
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“I love that Robert Iezzi’s benches from the ‘70s are all natural wood and that the design is extremely simple,” says designer Hieke Aardema. “The simpleness and pure functionality make the design of the bench timeless. Bringing a one-seat chair to the market as the smallest unit of the design, was meant as a tribute to Iezzi’s original.”
“I got the idea to have a special one-seat version—the Offspring chair—made for the 50th anniversary of the benches’ design. This would be a unique, limited-edition chair, crafted in a completely new way and executed in different festive colors from the 1970s.”
“After we aimed for the chair to have no trace of nails, screws or staples, it was decided that it would be held together from inside. The different parts of the chair are made with a CNC-machine (Computer Numerical Control), guaranteeing that each part of each next chair would be exactly the same.”
Hieke Aardema is a Dutch designer and entrepreneur who, after a career as a midwife, in her fifties finally turned to what had always been her personal interest: design and architecture. She was deeply inspired by the iconic wooden platform benches in the New York City subway stations. These benches, known for their simplicity, elegance, and functionality, sparked her passion for creating products from honest and straightforward materials.
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At MoMA Design Store, all of the designs we sell are curator-approved and authentic. We ensure the integrity of our products through research and by working closely with the designers. Our products embody the spirit of good design objects in MoMA's collection. Some of them are actual designs represented in the Museum's collection.