Miura Stool

Miura by Konstantin Grcic is a renowned plastic stool that, in 2005, solidified Grcic’s position as one of the most innovative and visionary designers of his generation. Produced by Plank, this stool was released shortly after the wave of fame created by Chair_ONE, and perhaps for this reason, it goes in the opposite direction.

In Grcic’s words, “The enormous attention we received for Chair_ONE inevitably led to a certain categorization of my work. Suddenly, I was associated with the sharp/angled style of the chair. Although I love its bomber aesthetic, I felt threatened by the trap of repeating myself with this successful formula.

Plank’s commission to design a monoblock plastic bar stool was the perfect opportunity to reinvent my design vocabulary. I wanted to move from a harder design to a much softer one. The Miura stool is strongly based on construction principles. However, its form was conceived by working in a much more sculptural way. The complex freeform surfaces were all designed on the computer.”

This stool, therefore, transitions from sharp and faceted shapes to softer ones. The creation of the stool’s geometries and surfaces begins with its function and its relationship with the human body. In fact, Konstantin Grcic’s design process starts with paper models, which are refined in his studio before being transferred to the computer at a later stage—a manual process reminiscent of that used by Sori Yanagi.