The white plastic chair, known as the Monobloc, is the most widely used piece of furniture globally. Whether you love it or hate it, this chair likely evokes memories of particular places or events. In the case of our first Supper Club, the Monobloc was the first symbol of the North Coast compound culture to come to mind.

Newer and trendier compounds have now installed their own branded wooden umbrellas and chairs on their beaches. Yet the older compounds still allow their home owners to bring their own beach furniture to their designated umbrellas.

Surprisingly or not so surprisingly the Monobloc chair takes the win. At Ghazala Bay compound, the entire strip is packed with families and children under the white plastic chair eating drinking and chatting the day alway. It is very rare to find a group sitting on wooden beach furniture.

The Monobloc chair originated from designers' long-held vision of creating a chair from a single pressed material, made possible by advancements in plastic technology.

At our first Supper Club on Egypt’s North Coast, we found the Monobloc chair to be an iconic beach symbol. It epitomizes mass production, modern consumerism, affordability, and democratic access to furniture.

As a quintessential mass consumer product, the Monobloc chair is found wherever cheap seating is needed—European gardens, African cafés, or Asian restaurants.

The idea of the Monobloc chair dates back to the 1920s when designers aspired to create a chair from a single piece of material. Early experiments involved pressing sheet metal or bending laminated wood. In the 1950s, advancements in plastics technology enabled the production of chairs by moulding or pressing plastic into shape in a single step. The term Monobloc stems from this simple production method and the straightforward design of the resulting furniture. Early mass-produced models include the Panton Chair (1958-68) by Verner Panton, the Bofinger Chair (1964-68) by Helmut Bätzner, and the Selene chair (1961-68) by Vico Magistretti.

In 1972, French engineer Henry Massonnet designed the Fauteuil 300, considered the archetype of the inexpensive plastic chair. By enhancing the efficiency of the manufacturing process, Massonnet reduced the production cycle to under two minutes. From the 1980s onwards, many companies produced similar models.

As the Monobloc chair spread globally, it came to symbolize the ambivalence of modern consumer society. It represents affordable, democratic furniture but fails to meet sustainability standards, reflecting global mass consumption of uniform products. Contemporary designers have created new interpretations of the Monobloc addressing these issues. Notable examples include the Café Chair (2006) by Fernando and Humberto Campana, Respect Cheap Furniture (2009) by Martí Guixé, and Martino Gamper’s Monothrone (2017), made specifically for this exhibition.

In some countries, the chair symbolizes disposable mass merchandise; in others, it is a valued object, repaired rather than discarded. The plastic chair reflects a pluralistic approach to design history, symbolizing the complexity of modern material culture.