The wooden lounge Shell chair designed by Marco Sousa Santos is a hand-assembled piece made out of plywood.The Lisbon-based designer Marco Sousa Santos of the Branca-Lisboa created the Shell chair as a lounge chair composed of exposed plywood.
The chair is made out of an array of wooden pieces disperse into a cocoon shape and supported by organically emerging legs. The birch plywood is digitally cut and then each piece is hand assembled by a Portuguese artisan - thus the chair incorporates both modern and traditional techniques.
The Shell chair is designed in the tradition of Portuguese lounge chairs: Its ribs are designed with the intention to hold pillows and cushion which would adjust to different persons’ body shape while allowing each user to personalize their own seating arrangement.
Marco Sousa Santos firm Branca-Lisboa is meant to be a new product and accessory label for home products, “where each piece is the result of an experimental approach, supported by detailed research into the aesthetic and structural qualities of the materials, as well as the most appropriate production methods.”
As Marco Sousa Santos explains the goal is to unite “Portuguese craftsmanship traditions with contemporary aesthetics (…) to reignite the bygone era when products were developed with patience, expertise, knowledge and integrity, aiming to truly reach the level of a high-end international product brand.”
