Vitra Eames Plastic Armchair RE DAL, polished base

Vitra Eames Dal Armchair.

The base for the DAL chair (Dining Height Armchair La Fonda Base) was developed in 1961 by Charles and Ray Eames for the legendary New York restaurant La Fonda del Sol, whose interior was designed by their friend Alexander Girard.

With its central pedestal made up of four parallel axes that split at the bottom to form a four star base, it is one of the most elegant and unconventional pedestals ever designed by the Eames's.

These plastic variants have been produced since the 1990s. In contrast to the traditional Fiberglass chairs, the Plastic Chairs are made of polypropylene colored through and through, which makes the shell of the Eames Plastic Chairs a bit more flexible and has a beautiful deep color.

Dimensions (width x depth x height): 62.5 x 60 x 79.5 cm. The Vitra Eames Dal chair is also available with an upholstered seat cushion or fully upholstered.

Since January 2024, the seat shells of the Eames Plastic Chairs by Vitra have been made from recycled post-consumer plastic. These chairs are known as the Eames Plastic Chairs RE. The recycled material comes from German household waste collected via the 'Der Gelbe Sack' (yellow bag) system and consists mainly of used packaging. Using this recycled material instead of regular plastic results in fewer harmful emissions for the climate and consumes significantly less energy.

Due to the composition of the recycled material, there are small pigment specks in the different colour variants of the seat shells. As a result of this switch, three colour variants have also been updated:

Emerald RE replaces Green
Citron RE replaces Sunlight
Cotton white RE replaces White

About the designers:

Ray and Charles Eames were an American designer couple whose name is known to anyone with an interest in modern design. Charles Eames was born in 1907 in St. Louis, Missouri. He studied architecture at the University of Washington and, at the invitation of the Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen, continued his studies at the Cranbrook Academy of Arts, Michigan in 1940.

There he met Eero Saarinen, with whom he entered a competition called " Organic Design in Home Decor" organized by MoMA in New York. Eames and Saarinen won the competition using a plywood molding technique originally developed by Alvar Aalto. In Cranbrook, Charles Eames also met his future wife Ray, and the couple married in 1941.