Vintage aluminium Emeco Navy chair in good condition

One of the world’s most recognizable chairs was originally designed by an engineer to be lightweight, fireproof, waterproof and strong enough to withstand a torpedo blast. If this sounds like the description of an industrial object and not furniture, it’s because that’s what the chair was meant to be. That engineer was Wilton C. Dinges (1916–74), and in 1944, in conjunction with experts from the Aluminum Company of America, he built a chair made of aluminum in response to the U.S. Navy’s call for seaworthy seating, suitable for use on battleships as well as submarines during World War II. This innovation is what we now know as the Navy chair.

To prove to the Navy that his chair was indestructible, Dinges threw it from the eighth floor of a hotel in Chicago. The chair bounced but did not break or bend. He secured the contract to manufacture the piece at the Electrical Machine and Equipment Company, Emeco, the company he founded in 1940, in Hanover, Pennsylvania. Since 1944, hundreds of thousands of these chairs, known as Emeco 1006, or, simply, the Navy chair, have been produced by Emeco for use on battleships, aircraft carriers and submarines.

The Navy chair was meant to be utilitarian and functional, but it is undeniably beautiful as well. The chair’s aluminum silver body and spare design are pleasing, but the three vertical back slats and distinct curved indents that characterize its seat are the piece’s most recognizable features. Using soft recycled aluminum that requires a 77-step process to convert it into a material that is three times stronger than steel, the chair is also completely handmade by Emeco’s team of seasoned craftsmen. The furniture manufacturer has always been focused on sustainability and creating “things that last.” To that end, a single Navy chair is tested to last 150 years. 

In 1979, California businessman Jay Buchbinder purchased Emeco. In the 1990s, as the company struggled financially, Buchbinder’s son Gregg noticed that influential tastemakers like Giorgio Armani and hotelier Ian Schrager had been buying the Navy chair. Emeco’s legendary piece had appeared in Schrager’s Paramount Hotel in New York City, thanks to architect and designer Philippe Starck. Buchbinder targeted this untapped, high-end market, and his efforts helped turn the company’s fortunes around. 

The Navy chair has since found a home in a variety of spaces, from fine-dining restaurants to art galleries. Accordingly, it has also spawned countless knockoffs. The best way to identify an original? Look for a lightweight aluminum chair with three vertical back slats that could survive a fall from an eighth-story window.

While they’re best known for their revolutionary Navy chair, iconic American furniture company Emeco makes a whole range of seating and other furniture — not just seaworthy chairs. The development of each product is guided by an eco-friendly ethos and pragmatic approach to design.

Emeco began to take shape during the 1940s, when the U.S. Navy needed a lightweight, fireproof chair that could withstand a torpedo blast and hold up to use by “big, burly sailors,” says Gregg Buchbinder, Emeco’s chief executive.

With experts from the Aluminum Company of America, an engineer named Wilton C. Dinges (1916–74) delivered, and the Emeco 1006 — that is, the Navy chair — an aluminum classic, was born. In order to demonstrate the chair’s sturdiness, Dinges threw it from the eighth floor of a hotel in Chicago, and when it landed, the chair bounced in lieu of breaking or bending.

The engineer secured a contract to manufacture the Navy chair beginning in 1944 at the Electrical Machine and Equipment Company (Emeco), which he’d founded a few years earlier in Hanover, Pennsylvania. In the ensuing decades, the factory’s craftsmen would stamp out by hand hundreds of thousands of Navy chairs for battleships, aircraft carriers and submarines — a process that requires more than 70 steps.

Today, the impossibly durable Navy chair, which is recyclable and made of at least 80 percent recycled aluminum, inspires knockoffs left and right and can be found in a variety of public settings, from upscale restaurants to hotels and offices. But it took time to get here.

In 1979, Gregg’s father, Jay Buchbinder, a businessman whose Long Beach, California, furniture company manufactured seating for fast food restaurants, purchased Emeco. The company hit a rough patch in the 1990s. When Gregg acquired Emeco from Jay in 1998, he took the $2 million in debt that came along with it. Fortuitously, Gregg learned that the Navy chair had taken on a new nonmilitary identity around the same time and that it was increasingly seen as sleek and retro in addition to being great submarine seating. Orders for the Navy chair were coming in from design luminaries like Ettore Sottsass, Giorgio Armani and a daring young French designer named Philippe Starck, who purchased a large number of 1006s for Ian Schrager’s Paramount hotel in New York City.

Gregg seized on Emeco’s newfound popularity, initiating a partnership with Starck, who would design the company’s Hudson Collection, a line planned for Manhattan’s Hudson Hotel that saw the Navy chair take on the form of a barstool and other pieces. He also partnered with Frank Gehry, whose Superlight chair for Emeco can be hoisted off the ground with one hand. Collaborations with Jasper Morrison, Jean Nouvel and others followed, and today, Emeco continues to build durable seating furniture from a range of recycled materials with a variety of designers.

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