Pastil Chair by Eero Aarnio 1967

One year after he had designed the Pastil Chair in 1968 Eero Aarnio received the American Industrial Award for this chair. The New York Times wrote about the Ball Chair and Pastil Chair at this time: "the most comfortable forms to hold up the human body", and the Conran's Design Dictionary says "they look like essays in period style, perhaps from Barbarella".

Aarnio about Pastil Chair: "The Pastil shape can be looked at from many angles. The initial idea could be the same as in a Screw Table i.e. the product shape comes from a small sweetie, pastil, but in this case the idea was, that a lot of empty, cushioned space is sent to the other side of the world inside the Ball Chair. A new round chair would fit in this space, and so the diameter of the Pastil is the same as the opening of the Ball Chair.

I made the first prototype out of polystyrene which helped me to verify the measurements, ergonomics and rocking ability.

Because fibreglass is always laminated by hand on a smooth mould the visible surface is perfectly shiny but the other surface slightly rough. I have always wanted to cover or to hide this side of my fibreglass products. In the Pastil it is ideally on the inside and thus totally invisible."

It is amazing how comfortable one can sit a in such a shiny, oversized "sweetie" slightly turning and rocking side-, back- and forwards.

The material - fibreglass - allows to keep the Pastil Chair outdoors throughout the year. In summer it is big fun to sit in the Pastil Chair floating on water, in winter gliding down a small hill with tremendous speed.

If you like to see the Aarnio furniture in different colors please visit our colors page.

Pastil Chair - where to buy