Pierre Jeanneret devised a teak-and-cane chair in Chandigarh in the 1950s. His cousin, Le Corbusier, was busy designing the city at the time. Jeanneret felt if there were to be a city… There were to be people and the people will need seats.
The chair’s V-shaped legs, hewn from humidity- and bug-resistant Burma teak by local artisans, were sturdy. Government offices across the country were swept up in this wave of practicality, and the Chandigarh chair spread across the subcontinent.
Like several cubicle workers, the chairs just did their jobs and were rather under the radar until a refurbished piece sold at the global forum for collectible design: Design Miami.