Designers have certainly created a number of variations on the infamous Egg Chair over the years. And that’s hardly a surprise. The egg is, after all, the sublime symbol of life, the quintessence of procreation, the everlasting signifier of the will to persist and begin anew… and the perfect protein to boot. But the latest incarnation is a novel take on the theme; for designer Emma Selzer, a student at Plus Architecture, has taken the notion of the egg—its perfect sphericity, its unalterable ovoid geometry—and neatly clipped it in two.

Plus Egg Chair. Designed by Emma Selzer.

Half an Egg Makes an Ideal Work Station

The effect of Selzer’s Plus Egg Chair is akin to the cross-sections of preserved cadavers on display in the Bodyworlds’ exhibitions, but that’s probably not what Selzer had in mind. Her cross-section exposes neither entrails nor sinuous sheets of muscle and bone, but rather a comfortable and pleasant work station, the entire surrounds composed of the whole that is the sum of Selzer’s parts: glued laminates made from some 110 pieces of plywood. The upshot is, essentially, a little wooden house, or half-a-house, or the work room within a fantastically diminutive house made of smoothly polished wood, inside and out. To my eyes, it rather resembles the inside of an acorn.

The aesthetic may thus hold great appeal for squirrels, but it does a thing or two for humans as well, especially those fickle types who often yearn for companionship, yet frequently take solace in absolute privacy. Selzer’s egg features a bolt and swivel design that allows the pod-like work stations to hang from the ceiling or perch on the floor—in either case, the unit can swivel a full 360 degrees or remain stationary at the point of your choosing, thus offering the freedom to face the crowd or politely turn away. This kind of versatility is just what one might expect from such an innovative design. And, surely, the denizens of Society—the South Yarra, Australia residential development and destination for a cadre of Plus Egg Chairs—will be happy to gather their nuts, so to speak, amid Selzer’s array of glorious wooden globes.

Via FrameMag.