A ball out of space

Eero Aarnio: Ball Chair, 1963-65

In 1957, the first satellite reached the Earth’s orbit. It was called Sputnik and it marked the beginning of the space age. In 1961, the Russian astronaut Yuri Gagarin was the first man to fly all around the Earth and, in 1969, the American Neil Armstrong was the first man on the moon.

During those years, many everyday things were designed in the look of space travel and outer space. That’s why this style is called ‘space age design’.

When the Fin Eero Aarnio and his wife moved into their first house together, he wanted to experiment with new shapes and materials. Although the sphere is a simple geometric shape, it had never been used before in the design of chairs.

Here you can see how Eero Aarnio builds a „Ball Chair“ .