Setting out to design the archetypal lounge chair, reducing it down to as few lines as possible, British industrial designer Daniel Schofield recently unveiled the Allay chair for Portuguese design brand, MOR. Designed to have a calming and inviting presence, the Allay chair brings together craft and simplicity to create an honest, comfortable and timeless piece. By engaging in the process of subtraction, details are reduced to create a pure and refined shape that is easy to connect with and will age gracefully. The form has been broken down to its essential components and balances aesthetics with practicality and durability.

Daniel explains:

I wanted to create a chair that had a sense of familiarity, and for people to feel comfortable with it quickly. Something that has a quiet confidence and a familiar presence. The hope is that in doing so people can quickly forge a connection with it and imprint some of their own personality on the object, this then will hopefully lead it to becoming a treasured piece, with a long and well loved life.

The name Allay comes from the Old English word alecgan, which means “to put down”, as in literally “to lighten”. So, if you allay something, you are calming it or reducing its difficulties.

Expertly crafted in Portugal by MOR, materials of oak, ash, and walnut were chosen to reinforce the sense of solidity and strength.

I believe that no detail should exist without reason, so I take a reductive approach to materials, form, and function. I try to solve problems in the simplest possible way, removing anything that is unnecessary, and distilling the result into a clean, honest, and understated aesthetic, with the aim to create useful, understandable, and timeless products.