(The Star (Malaysia)/ANN): A CHAIR is a chair. Or is it?

Last Friday, an elegant woven-rattan chair took home the Jury’s Award at the KL Chair Open Design Competition, organised by the Kuala Lumpur Architecture Festival (KLAF) 2018.

The winning seat also earned the honour of being named the first-ever “KL Chair”, beating 17 other finalists for the title and winning a cash prize of 15,000 ringgit ($3,664).

The KL Chair is likened to the iconic Barcelona Chair designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in 1929. One of the most recognised chairs of the 20th century, it was designed by Van der Rohe for the German Pavilion at the International Exposition in Barcelona that year.

The KL Chair Open Design Competition was held to find the most creative and functional chair designs that best reflected the city.

Remembering the Barcelona Chair, “We wondered what a KL Chair would look like. I think most people only thought of the red plastic ‘mamak’ shop chair when we asked around,” said KLAF 2018 director Ang Chee Cheong after Friday’s award ceremony.

The KL Chair, also called the Anyaman Chair, was designed to portray the socio-cultural diversity and integrated nature of Kuala Lumpur.

Additionally, it was designed by three members of the same family – architects and husband and wife Ng Zhia Zhing and Tan Shin Bian, and her cousin Sze Yoong Shern.