Monobloc (chair)

The Monobloc chair is a lightweight stackable polypropylene chair, usually white in colour, often described as the world's most common plastic chair. The name comes from mono- ("one") and bloc ("block"), meaning an object forged in a single piece.

History
Variants of the one-piece plastic chair designed by Canadian D.C. Simpson in 1946 went into production with Allibert Group and Grosfillex Group in the 1970s. Other sources name the French engineer Henry Massonnet from Nurieux-Volognat with his "Fauteuil 300" from 1972 as the inventor of the monobloc. They were inspired by the Chair Universal 4867 design by Joe Colombo in 1965, but no patents were filed for a monobloc chair design. Since then, millions have been manufactured around the world.

Production and usage
The Monobloc chair is so named because it is injection moulded from thermoplastic as one piece rather than being assembled from multiple pieces. Many variations and styles exist but all are designed to allow the chair to be made quickly and cheaply through injection molding. A common material used is thermoplastic polypropylene, with the granules being heated approximately 220 Celsius, and the resulting melt injected into a mold. The gate of the mould is usually located in the seat, ensuring smooth flow to all parts of the tool.

Close to a billion Monoblocs have been sold in Europe alone, with one Italian manufacturer producing over ten million a year in 2004. The chairs cost approximately $3.50 to produce in 2011, making them both affordable and ubiquitous—in the billions —worldwide. Numerous variants exist. Their light weight and stackable design eases both their deployment and storage, even for large gatherings. (One modern design weighs 2.7 kg, half that of the standard make, and can be stacked 24 high.) They are also prevalent in both corporate and individual outdoor usage due to features such as the slits on seat and backrest which rain water and wind pass through, their wide base which resists their occupants tipping over, and their sheer utility and replaceability.

Social reception
The monobloc chair has been a controversial piece of furniture. Many people, including social theorist Ethan Zuckerman, have described the chair as having achieved ubiquity at a global scale. This quality has been seen as both a positive and a negative, with some considering the homogenous nature of the chair "disturbing" and "the real evil of globalization", while others have called it one of "the world's most perfectly designed object[s]".

Monobloc plastic chairs were banned from public spaces in the city of Basel, Switzerland, from 2008 to 2017 to preserve the beauty of cityscape.

Exhibitions

 * 2017: Monobloc. A chair for the world at the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein.
 * 2018: Honor Cheap Furniture by Martí Guixé at Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna in Rome.