Calvet armchair designed by Antoni Gaudí is a reproduction by BD Barcelona Design, entirely made of solid varnished oak and it's part of the serie of furniture designed by Gaudí for Casa Calvet, including a stool, a mirror, a chair and a bench.
The Casa Calvet in the Carrer Casp in Barcelona was the Catalan architect’s first housing project and it was awarded a prize by Barcelona city council for being the best building in 1900. Two years later, Gaudí designed the furniture, carved in oak, for the offices on the ground floor of the building. They were first produced by the Casa y Bardés company and they are preserved at the Gaudí Museum in the Park Güell.
In contrast with what happened in general to almost all the Modernista furniture which ended up going out of fashion, furniture designed by Gaudí is still as modern today as it was when it was first designed. Perhaps this is because it is more reminiscent of sculpture than mere benches and chairs.
The admiration felt by modern designers for the furniture designed by Gaudí has not gone unnoticed by BD Barcelona which was the first company to rescue them from history by embarking on their serial production using traditional art and craft techniques and the same materials –varnished solid oak– in order to reproduce all the rich detail displayed by the originals when they were first produced.