How do you design a modern restaurant that feels comfortable and unpretentious? The Bauhaus pupil and later sole employee of Mies van der Rohe until 1934, Herbert Hirche, succeeded in this difficult task. Hirche was Professor at the Academy of Art in Stuttgart, and has been a member of the German Council of Design since 1961.
He designed the first Italian restaurant in Stuttgart, the famous “Santa Lucia” twice. And with it the two Santa Lucia chairs, one in 1956 and the other 1969. The „Santa Lucia“ chair has nothing of the romantic Finca style or colonial backgrounds of the traditional rattan furniture. It is one of the rare modern architectural designs using rattan. The „Santa Lucia“ can be used as dining or kitchen chair, at home, in cafe´s or restaurants. What looks like the backrest performs as an armrest, it is comfortable and stackable. It is a design of which you will not get tired of and after more than 30 years it is proven to be timeless. Afraid of rattan? If one of the strings ever brakes, any basket weaver can repair the chair. Since 2009 the chair is also available in weather resistant and easy to clean polyethylene fibre.