Lingua Franca

From a hand-drawn doodle to a Red Dot Award, designer, and reluctant engineer, Michael Anastassiades, discusses his celebrated N.200 lounge chair for Gebrüder Thonet Vienna.

Half Cypriot, half Greek, Michael Anasstadiades grew up with Thonet chairs and their richness of tradition and craftsmanship. Following a degree in engineering, Anasstadiades left Cyprus for London to do a masters of design at the Royal College of Art because in his words, he also needed to do “something creative”.

“I think I’ve been running away from engineering but looking back at a lot of my designs, I can see the engineering is still there,” says Anasstadiades from his London studio. “So, I am always sketching, I cannot stop thinking,”

Inspired by his cultural heritage and informed by a strong technical proficiency, Anasstadiades’s designs for brands from Flos to Gebrüder Thonet Vienna (GTV), clearly express a refined design language. The big challenge presetned by the GTV collaboration was to bring something fresh to the brand's historic collection.

The N.200 chair designed by Michael Anasstadiades for GTV wins a prestigious 2020 Red Dot Design Award. All images c/o Gebruder Thonet Vienna.

The N.200 chair designed by Michael Anasstadiades for GTV wins a prestigious 2020 Red Dot Design Award. All images c/o Gebruder Thonet Vienna.

“Working with GTV is very challenging, especially when it comes to designing something for them that is contemporary. There is no way to escape the references. I think because it is a company that has such a strong history – you are talking about 200 years of using the same wood bending technique – the challenge as a designer is how you can contribute to that.” reflects Anasstadiades.

The GTV commission asked for a chair that would celebrate the 200th anniversary of the opening of Michael Thonet’s first joinery workshop in Boppard, Austria, in 1819. At the time, Thonet not only invented and patented the steam bentwood chair we now know as the N14 café chair, they also flat-packed and exported it around the world, a step that would lead the way for future designers wanting to scale their designs for a global market.

“I came up with the idea of designing a low chair and of playing with a kind of doodle on a piece of paper. It was drawn basically in one line, without taking my pen off the paper..."

Michael Anastassdeias

"It is actually quite compact but when you sit in it , it's actually very generous. So, it’s interesting the way it plays between those two boundaries."

Michael Anastassiades

“It was a very open brief, it didn’t even have to be a chair which is usually the most successful brief. If a designer is given the freedom to create, they can let the technique lead them to a product”, he explains. “I came up with the idea of designing a low chair and of playing with a kind of doodle on a piece of paper. It was drawn basically in one line, without taking my pen off the paper. It is a very playful design. It also suggests movement in a way, even though it is not a rocking chair. It kind of suggests that with its rear curved legs.”

Now the lyrical incorporation of tradition defines the effortless beauty of N.200, which is fluid, light and generous. The seat and back rest are made from stretched woven cane and rest elegantly on frame, integrating the steam bentwood manufacturing technique invented by Michael Thonet.



“The beauty of this chair is that it is so light. I wanted lightness, I didn’t want a heavy seat. It is actually quite compact, but when you sit down it is actually very generous. The way it plays between those two boundaries is interesting,” Anasstadiades enthuses.

Winning the prestigious 2020 Red Dot Design Award in late April has led to a second collaboration with GTV for Anasstadiades soon to be released to the world.

The Gebrüder Thonet Vienna N.200 lounge chair designed by Michael Anastassiades is available exclusively from Space – Australia – and Space – Asia. 

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