Why are most restaurant chairs made for the hungry clientele? After a meal has been consumed and the talking ensues, we lean back in our chairs and shift lower. But the chairs we sit in do not adjust to our needs. Instead, they remain rigid and straight. The Drape Chair by Felix Low of Urban Foundry may or may not have considered the weight of our body’s renewed battery life post-consumption when designing the chair that does double-duty.

The Drape Chair. Designed by Felix Low for Urban Foundry.

Low is a huge supporter of what he calls “understated elegance and pared-down simplicity”. Back in 2003, when he started Urban Foundry, Low believed his fellow Singaporeans felt the same way. Without the absolute desire to grow into a worldwide distributor of high quality furnishings, he and his fellow Southeast Asian designers have recently attracted the attention of global furniture critics. Just six years of hard work later, Urban Foundry’s influence has extended its reach. Now, the original Singapore squad works with the design collective – called Outofstock – and pulls talent in now from seven countries including: Germany, Serbia, Japan, and Finland, to name a few.

The Drape Chair comes in a darker walnut or a lighter oak, and is made from molded plywood. Considering it’s name, the construction of the chair is self-explanatory – they laid a piece of molded plywood over the solid chair structure, making it solid, but also easy on the eye. A traditional wooden chair instantly transforms itself into a modern piece of art when the latest technologies are employed by the young designers at Urban Foundry.

Although Low did not follow the usual design school route, he hoped early on that someday it would become his reality. Beginning his career in the commerce industry, he earned priceless entrepreneurial skills that have catapulted Urban Foundry into the spotlight.