Perfect for the classroom environment as well as cafes and restaurants, these lightweight stacking chairs and tables save on space without scrimping on style.

Inspired by a tower of stacked chairs, Oliver Schick's new Layer chair for Mitab has a lightweight but strong sandwich structure.

Ross Lovegrove‘s lightweight Diatom chair for Moroso is made entirely from aluminum, making it suitable for both indoor and outdoor use and enabling it be stacked vertically without tipping forward.

Diecast in lightweight aluminum the indoor/outdoor Grace stacking chair by Samuel Wilkinson for Italian brand EMU is inspired by early twentieth-century wood furniture.

Created for education environments, the Copenhague collection by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec for Danish furniture maker Hay is both playful and practical. The stacking design of the tables and chairs saves spaces while the chair’s shape-with a seat and back mounted in the centre of the seat-follows the movement of the user and provides flexible comfort.

Providing a bright alternative to run-of-the-mill stacking chairs, London-based design studio PearsonLloyd have created a line of plastic chairs for HOWE with vibrantly colored metal legs. Called the SixE, the chair has a triple curved polypropylene shell with a semi gloss graphical texture on the back and a slightly textured and matt-coated front. Available as a side chair or armchair, SixE can stack up to 25 chairs high.