The BASF stand unveiled the MYTO plastics chair

BASF Plastics along with renowned innovative designer Konstantin Grcic introduced the MYTO cantilever chair made of easy flowing engineering plastics at K Show.

At the world’s largest plastics trade fair in Duesseldorf, Germany, Dr. John Feldmann, member of the Executive Board of BASF, where he is responsible for plastics and oil & gas, unveiled the MYTO chair in the presence of its creator, Konstantin Grcic, acclaimed industrial designer and recipient of many international awards.

Project Partners

KGID:
Konstantin Grcic Industrial Design (KGID), established in Munich, Germany in 1991; Konstantin Grcic (1965) is currently Germany's most successful industrial designer. He designs furniture, products and lighting for several of the leading design companies in the world. Many of his products have been awarded prestigious prizes for their design and can be found in the permanent collections of major design museums (Museum of Modern Art in New York, Centre George Pompidou in Paris), e.g. his multi-functional lamp MAYDAY (Flos 1998). His clients include Authentics, ClassiCon, Flos, Krups, Lamy, Muji, Plank and Vitra. In 2007 Konstantin Grcic was awarded ‘Designer of the Year’ by the German magazine Architektur & Wohnen and also by the Stockholm Furniture Fair in Sweden as well as by the trade fair ‘Maison et Objet /NOW!’ in France.

Plank:
This Italian furniture company can look back on a history spanning more than a hundred years. For generations, its name has stood for the highest quality. Plank works together with renowned designers. Together with Konstantin Grcic, Plank introduced the MIURA bar stool (2005) to the market, which was recently added to the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Unveiling of the MYTO chair:
Before MYTO goes onto the market, the chair has to prove it fulfils high mechanical and aesthetic requirements. The chair with its filigree perforations looks different depending on the color and so the experts choose their favorite shade using small models of the chair. See photos at left and right.

“MYTO”: a cantilever chair made entirely of engineering plastics
This innovative piece of design furniture is a cantilever chair made entirely of BASF’s novel, especially easy-flowing engineering plastics Ultradur High Speed. Chemically speaking, this material belongs to the family of polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) and its special processing properties come from nanoparticles. The high flowability, coupled with the strength of this plastic, allows an elegant transition from thick to thin cross sections. Even though the chair is manufactured as a monobloc and has a sturdy frame, its net-like perforations integrated into the backrest and the seat give it a graceful appearance. Konstantin Grcic spoke about the MYTO chair for the first time at BASF’s press conference in Frankenthal, Germany in July of 2007. However, all that could be seen at that time was preliminary images of drafts and prototypes.

Record-breaking development time
The MYTO project was completed within record time. It took just a bit over a year to go from the original idea to the tool for serial production. The Italian furniture manufacturer Plank came on board at a very early stage of the development and was put in charge of manufacturing the serial part as well as of selling the chair. Before the first serially produced chair could be shown in Duesseldorf, the final optimization steps had to be carried out: the plastics had to have just the right ratio of elasticity, stiffness and strength in order to meet the requirements made of a comfortable, sturdy and yet shapely cantilever chair. The interplay between the plastics formulation and the design of the injection molding tool – a mere three injection points suffice – then gave the product its final shape and properties.

Design and designfabrik
The collaboration with Konstantin Grcic and the MYTO chair are the impressive outcome of an expanded marketing concept adopted by BASF Plastics: in order to tap into new markets, BASF is increasingly concentrating on the topic of designing with plastics. An integral part of this concept is the designfabrik*, the design factory founded in Ludwigshafen, Germany in May of 2006, where industrial designers can consult with BASF plastics experts and receive advice ranging from the initial idea to the product concept, all the way to color and tool design.

* Ultradur (high speed plastics) is a registered trademark of BASF. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective intellectual property owners.

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