Max Lamb's 'Min' chair debuts for Hem, reducing material use by half

Max Lamb's 'Economy' chair, first conceived in 2020 as a waste-reduction experiment, has entered large-scale production as the 'Min' chair for Swedish design brand Hem. The chair is made of pine, with timber elements cut diagonally and split to form legs, back, and seat, using half the material of a square-legged chair. Lamb's process involves hand-cutting prototypes from polystyrene foam with hot wire, refining the design in his workshop to achieve material efficiency. The chair's triangular legs create two legs from the material normally used for one, embodying Lamb's focus on making material go further. The design is a consequence of Lamb's hands-on making practice, which includes metal furniture, tree-cut seating, and cardboard chairs. The Min chair's aesthetic and personality arise from efforts to achieve production and material efficiencies, not from arbitrary form. Lamb emphasizes that the design is responsive to material properties and production processes, refined through numerous iterations in real time.