Ming Heart Armchair

Overview

Ming’s Heart is Shi-Chieh Lu’s 2016 armchair for Poltrona Frau. The design brings the continuous line of the historic Ming chair into a cubic tubular structure.

Construction

A gunmetal-grey galvanised steel-tube frame surrounds a thin steel-sheet shell. The shell is lightly padded with polyurethane foam, fully covered in Saddle Extra leather and fixed to the tubes with visible screws.

Specifications

• Model: 5609111
• Largest drawing values, not labelled with axes: 60 × 65 × 73 cm
• Upholstery: Saddle Extra leather with contrasting stitching
• Cover: not removable

East and West

Poltrona Frau describes the project as meeting two visions. Lu starts from the calligraphic purity associated with the historic Ming chair and sets it against a Western language of geometric and cubic rigour.

One continuous surface

The armrests, seat and back are treated as a single thin plane rather than separate padded volumes. Its attachment points remain visible, so the upholstered surface appears suspended inside the steel outline.