Hourglass Chair Timber

€619

In 1963, Teresa Kruszewska designed a small chair so original that architects were still asking about it sixty years later. In the Hourglass Chair, Krystian Kowalski brings her idea to the adult table: a composition of repeating plywood elements, narrowed at the waist, redesigned for the proportions and comfort of a grown body.

The Timber version keeps the construction entirely in view – moulded plywood in oak veneer, with a shallow carved recess shaped to the sitting body.

Original concept: Teresa Kruszewska, 1963. Design: Krystian Kowalski for 366 Concept, 2026.

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Dispatch in: 12 weeks
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Hourglass Chair Timber

Hourglass Chair Timber

€619
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TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION

Hourglass Chair Timber

Frame: moulded, bent-laminated plywood, formed on dedicated moulds and CNC-machined
Finish: oak veneer
Seat: veneered plywood with carved recess
Glides: five, for even load and stability
Dimensions: H 72 × W 54.5 × D 51.5 cm
Seat height: 45 cm
Armrest height: 70 cm at the front, rising to 72 cm at the back of the ring
Weight: 5.5 kg
Package: 55 × 60 × 74 cm, delivered assembled

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The Story Behind

In 1963, Teresa Kruszewska was asked to design seating for children of different ages at the hospital in Kraków-Prokocim. She answered with symmetry: a mirrored back and base, and a seat positioned so that turning the chair over produced a second seat height. It was light enough for a child to move alone, engineered for mass production – and, in the end, made in almost no quantity. One of the most original Polish furniture ideas of its decade remained an unfinished task.

63 years later, Krystian Kowalski completed it. Working with 366 Concept, he took Kruszewska's principle, a few repeating elements composed into one narrowing form, and designed a full-size chair around the adult body: new proportions, a more fluid line of the back, the relationship of seat to backrest tuned in millimetres across two years of prototypes. The result keeps everything that made the original remarkable: the lightness, the symmetry, the silhouette you recognise at once. And it gives the idea what it was always meant to have – daily use, at the table.

IN DETAIL

Comfort, Carved in Wood

Comfort here is a matter of millimetres. The relationship of seat to backrest, the width of the arm ring, the depth of the carved recess – Krystian Kowalski tuned each across two years of prototypes, because in a chair these fractions decide everything.

The result sits closer to a small armchair than a dining chair: the ring supports the forearms, the seat holds the body without pressing it, and the back follows one fluid line. Here the carved recess does the work of a cushion, in wood. A chair for long dinners and longer conversations.

IN DETAIL

Frame: Moulded Plywood

The silhouette is spare, but the elements behind it carry complex geometry: each shape answers at once for the form, the comfort and the stability of the chair. The back and the lower base are formed three-dimensionally from bent-laminated plywood, on moulds developed solely for this design to hold exact radii, bending angles and repeatability from one piece to the next.

After forming, every element is CNC-machined, because the parts meet and pass through one another at precisely defined angles. The joints recess one element into a milled socket in the other — a larger glued surface inside a junction that stays slender on the outside. That is where the chair's lightness comes from.

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Krystian Kowalski

Krystian Kowalski (b. 1982) is a graduate of the Design Faculty at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and of the Royal College of Art in London. His work has received the Red Dot Award, the German Design Award, the iF Design Award and the Good Design Award, and he has been named Designer of the Year by the Institute of Industrial Design in Warsaw. For the Hourglass Chair he developed the adult ergonomics from the ground up, keeping Kruszewska's compositional principle intact.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • The delivery time depends on the type of furniture. An estimated time frame is provided on each product page. Depending on the product, the delivery time ranges from 6 to 12 weeks.

    Exceptions include products that are in stock and ready-to-assemble items (such as dressers and desks), for which the delivery time is 1 to 2 weeks.

    Stock Sale – products marked with the Stock Sale promotion have an expedited shipping time – approximately 4 weeks, depending on payment confirmation.

  • Available payment methods: Bank transfer, Credit cards (payment processed by Stripe), PayPro, PayPal, Klarna.

    With Klarna, you can pay 30 days after placing your order or split the payment into 3 installments. Klarna options may vary depending on the country.

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    *The discount cannot be combined with ongoing promotions.


  • Absolutely! For each product, you can choose the wood finish and the type and color of the fabric. We encourage you to contact us through the furniture personalization form.

  • If you need a different delivery date than the one indicated on the website, please email us at hello@366concept.com. We will check the available options and try to accommodate your request as best we can.

  • We manufacture furniture according to the customer’s preferences, taking into account the selected fabric and wood finish. Such products are not eligible for returns.

    *Only ready-to-use products (Sideboards 1050, Desks S60) and products marked “Shipping 48H” can be returned within 14 days of receiving the shipment.