«I wanted to enrich the product range of horgenglarus with a contemporary cross-frame family of chairs, which is capable of a lot of things and remains useful for a long time – in line with the circular economy», says Stephan Hürlemann. imma is the only wooden chair by the manufacturer from Glarus whose seat is screwed on. Thus, the most stressed element can simply be exchanged.

horgenglarus stands for classic and timeless wooden chairs and tables of highest processing quality. With imma, Hürlemann brings modernity and colour to the collection. Instead of a surrounding solid wood frame, the cross frame stabilises the chair. Seat and backrest made of bent 3D moulded plywood offer a high degree of seating comfort and give the design a light appearance.

With the new chair family, horgenglarus presents itself remarkably colourful. Stephan Hürlemann put together a collection of 13 different shades of colour. imma is available either as monochrome or two-tone version, whereas natural wood can also be combined with a colour. “The colour black is rooted deeply in the DNA of horgenglarus“, says Stephan Hürlemann, “so we thought it was about time to introduce some colour variety.“ This way, imma can visually adapt to any surrounding or leave a mark in a room. Good to know: 100% beech wood from the forests of Swiss Canton of Jura is used for the opaquely lacquered imma chairs.

The big challenge was to design the chair with and without armrests as well as stackable. Since it is based on a cross-frame construction, for example changing the position of the legs affects the whole chair geometry. Also, an efficient production of the chairs and stools in the manufactory was mandatory. In order to meet these requirements, Hürlemann and his team tested the design in a virtual space. The insights gained by this were incorporated in the execution of the next prototype in each case.

Design: Stephan Hürlemann
Project assistant: Elisa Böll
Supported by: Julian Wasem and Andrin Bührer