It's a shame that Spanish lacks an explicit parallel between the words "arch" and "architecture," because Barcelona-based studio ARQITECTURA-G pays brilliant homage to the former in their "Claudio" chair for INDOORS (the furniture design department of the practice). Not that this linguistic lacuna it detracts from the minimal—dare I say archetypal—design of the chair:The starting point of Claudio chair's design is the arch as element and its repetition. The arch, traditionally related to the heavy solid construction rather than to the framework, is here decontextualized using it in a small scale piece made out of thin wood planes. The lower part of the legs is rounded so each one only leans in a single point. Then, the legs make up an L-shaped cross-section which transforms into arches in each plane, making the joints under the seat stiff.

To form the back, the rear arch grows without touching the seat—a horizontal plane that reinforces the categorically geometrical character of the piece—until it reaches the proper height. The trapezoidal form of the seat breaks the formal purity of the whole, giving in exchange a fake illusion of vanishing point, in the way of forced perspectives of the renaissance and the paintings of Chirico [sic].

At first glance, I thought it was powdercoated aluminum or sheet steel, but the product description indicates that it's actually lacquered MDF.

While the material certainly won't last as long as, say, the Coliseum, the timeless form remains compelling and undeniably iconic.