Towards the end of the 1980s a new spirit of functionalism and simplicity was perceived in the design of furniture, and one of the chief protagonists was Jasper Morrison.

In 1988, Morrison participated in Designwerkstatt Berlin, part of the city's programme of events during its term as European City of Culture. His installation, 'Some New Items for the Home, Part I' at the DAAD Gallery featured a sparsely furnished room with just a few deceptively simple objects: a table, three chairs, and three green glass bottles. Later, Morrison commented: 'The main reason the Plywood Chair looks the way it does is that I had to make it myself, and the only equipment I had was an electric jigsaw and some ‘ship’s curves’. So it became a project to cut shapes out of a plywood sheet and reassemble them to make something three-dimensional. I found that by using a thin sheet of ply for the seat and curving the cross bars below it, I could achieve a cushioning effect, which in some way compensates for other, less accommodating features. After that I did a model with the back filled in, which was more comfortable but less exciting.' One year after the exhibition in Berlin, Vitra began to produce both versions of the chair.

This plywood chair embodies Morrison's approach. It is reduced to a very simple shape, merely a seat, four legs and the outline of the back, made from humble undecorated plywood. In a sense it can be compared to a sketch of a chair, since it appears to comprise only the most essential and primary elements needed to construct one. But a closer look reveals that it is a far from simplistic design. While the front legs and seat appear to be geometric and right-angled, the shape of the chair back and rear legs are fluid, like a freehand drawing, or the profile of a stringed instrument like a guitar or violin. The controlled curvaceousness of this part of the chair adds sensousness to what could otherwise be an overly simplistic design.