Peter Ghyczy. Garden Egg Chair for Reuter Products

PETER GHYCZY (Budapest, 1940 - The Netherlands, 2022) for Reuter Products.
"Garden Egg Chair, 1960s.
Polyurethane and fabric upholstery.
In good condition with signs of use and age. Repaired hinge.
Measurements: 98 x 84 x 74 cm.

The Garden Egg Chair was designed for both indoors and outdoors, although, as a design icon and collector's item, it is rarely used outdoors. It was one of the first chairs made of polyurethane, as well as one of the forerunners in the use of hinges. It appears in several motion pictures. Its appearance reflects the aesthetic patterns of the time: the Space Age look (name given to the period in which the space race was launched, starting in 1957 with the launch of Sputnik. This fever to conquer space also reached design, and during the sixties and seventies a decoration model was developed based on an idyllic vision of the future, and everything to do with spaceships, new technologies and innovative materials), brightly colored plastic lacquer, portability and informality of the low seat.

Peter Ghyczy is one of many 20th century designers who were also immigrants - among them Henry van de Velde, Marcel Breuer, Hans Gugelot, Peter Maly... and who had a great impact on German and international design. He completed his secondary education in Germany, studying sculpture in Düsseldorf before training in architecture at the Technical University of Aachen in 1960, specializing in construction engineering. During his studies, Ghyczy worked as an assistant to the renowned German architect Rudolf Steinbach (1903-1966) and on projects in Paris and Egypt. In 1968 he took up a position at Elastogran in Lemförde in southern Lower Saxony, where he was responsible for the development of polyurethane products. He also worked for Vitra.