Designer: Michael Young 2010

Emeco, The Aluminum Chair Company, will present a new furniture collection by British designer Michael Young at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile, 14 – 19 April 2010 in Milan.

The collection of stacking chairs, barstools and tables is Emeco’s first foray into component-based design incorporating cast aluminum seats and backs with carved ash-wood legs. The ashwood components are made by Emeco’s partner, an Amish factory in nearby Lancaster County PA, providing the collection its name, Lancaster.

“I have worked extensively with the aluminum manufacturing process recently, and with some of the best equipped factories in Asia. I was looking at the ways to join other materials with aluminum over the last few years and thinking about a chair, “explained Mr. Young.

“My work with the bicycle manufacturer, Giant, pushed me away from using standard section metal tubing. The sculptural form of the chair leg could only be made in wood. When I found that Emeco has partnered with a remarkable wood factory, the project gelled. It is an immense privilege to work with the Emeco family, I am sincerely proud in a way I have not felt previously. And I do feel the project fits me well with my love for and industrial heritage and what I consider to be the real thing.

I feel passionate about working with natural materials that live for ever; wood and metal are really the materials that connect to the human so there was no question that the richness of their aging processes is a prefect combination I felt would be contrasting in the Emeco collection. I felt that using wood would create a softer edge to a product whilst the aluminum would keep to sophistication and heritage.

For me the new chair was much needed, not as a vanity but as good sold piece of industrial hardware for both domestic and contract markets.”

Lancaster features an indestructible, cast aluminum seat and back in dark anodized and machine polished finishes. The wood legs are available in natural ash-wood and dark stain ash-wood.