The Hot Seat

Smithsonian magazine has an excellent piece about the origin of the eerily ubiquitous, single-form, injection-molded plastic chair, which actually turns out to be a work of design genius.

This humble piece of furniture, criticized by some people as hopelessly tacky, is an item of truly international, even universal, utility. What other product in recent history has been so widely, so to speak, embraced? And how had it found niches in so many different societies and at so many different levels, from posh resorts to dirt courtyards? How did it gain a global foothold?

The article is for some reason in .PDF form, but well worth a read for the rather fascinating story of one of the world's more familar objects.