Growing up my parents had a chair in the downstairs playroom left over from the 70s that looked a lot like the Silkchair above. As a child I was drawn to its woven complexity; I couldn’t understand how all that space still held me up, and I couldn’t quite figure out the logic to its spiderlike pattern. Truly the chair mesmerized me, even in its retro-futuristic wonderfulness. The environmentally friendly Silkchair shares many of these aspects, formed by weaving silk thread tightened around an oak frame — its construction lending the chair a sense of weightlessness. The Swedish designer of the Silkchair, Åsa Kärner at Alvi Design, vows to construct “furniture and products using environmentally friendly materials with a focus on sustainable production methods and humane working conditions. These are the criteria I use as a platform for my design and production.” Using FSC-certified oak and eco-friendly silk thread, Kärner puts her designs where her ethics lead her.