Another intriguing piece showing at the Milan Design Show 2009 is Richard Hutten’s Cloud Chair, which is being produced by Ormond Contemporary Editions of Geneva. Hutten, the Dutch designer associated with Droog Design since its inception in 1993, has always been known for his whimsy (his photograph on the serious Ormond website has him posing with a glove that features an elongated finger, his hair curly and wild in the wind).

Cloud Chair. Designed by Richard Hutten for Ormond Contemporary Editions.

His Cloud Chair is another incarnation of his unique vision. Produced as a limited edition, Cloud Chair is composed of polished, nickel-plated aluminum. A kind of embodiment of the silver lining that proverbs tell us all clouds have, Cloud Chair animates the ethereal cloud into a solid mass. From the back, Hutten’s chair is pure sculpture—a piece meant to incite conversation. It is only when viewed from the front that one notices Cloud Chair’s convenient seat, a sort of throne in which one would be enveloped by curves. From this kingly seat, one could reign over a kingdom of metallic creatures, all ghostly in their cloud-like bodies but nevertheless glossy. Short of a magical neverland, Cloud Chair might make it into boutique hotels and futuristic skyscrapers the world over.

Hutten’s Cloud Chair is somewhat analogous to Rashid’s Blobulous, as both wrap you in the odd contours of a group of bubbles. Almost like a blown-up chemistry model, both chairs remind one that furniture exists as an inheritance of civilization. We have conquered the elements, so why not show it by ensconcing ourselves within representations of those very elements. In this case, air.

via Designboom