Hourglass Chair. Once made to turn, now made to stay.

Teresa Kruszewska created it in 1963 for a children's hospital in Kraków, engineered for mass production and meant for thousands of children. It reached almost none of them. Sixty-three years later, Krystian Kowalski has taken up Kruszewska's idea and reinterpreted it as a chair for adults.

Order yours

EXPLORE THE STORY

As featured in

The origin, 1963

One chair for every age

Teresa Kruszewska drew the reversable chair for the children's hospital in Kraków-Prokocim in 1963. The brief was practical: one chair for children of different ages. Her answer was a symmetrical seat that, turned over, gave a second height.  Made in plywood by a cooperative near Kraków, the chair never went beyond that first short series.

The original chairs in use, Kraków-Prokocim, 1963

the initial vision

Teresa Kruszewska

One of the leading furniture designers of post-war Poland, in a profession then almost entirely male. She taught at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts for more than four decades, worked in Alvar Aalto's studio in Helsinki, and drew the Muszelka chair and the Tulipan armchair. Much of her career went into furniture for children.

Her work is held by the National Museums in Warsaw and Poznań and by the Vitra Design Museum.

Teresa Kruszewska, 1927–2014

"Teresa Kruszewska's work secures her a permanent place in the history of Polish design and continues to inspire designers to the present day."

Anna Maga, curator of the design collection, National Museum in Warsaw

An unfinished idea 

The challenge? 
You can't simply enlarge a children's chair.

An adult version called for more than a scaled drawing. Body proportions change with age, and so do the points of support and the way people sit; any careless adjustment risked losing what made the original good. 366 Concept decided that the idea needed a new chair, designed with full respect for its source, and took the project to Krystian Kowalski.

work in progress

A matter of millimetres

Krystian Kowalski developed the chair's adult ergonomics from scratch: the seat height and angle, the support for the back, the way the seat and the backrest meet across the width of the chair. 

 

The details are slimmer, and the backrest follows a more fluid line. The flip belonged to the hospital. An adult needs one height, set for comfort, so this chair is made to be used one way up. The frame is moulded plywood throughout, formed on moulds made for this chair alone and then CNC-machined.

"Changing individual elements literally by millimetres, the relationship between the seat and the backrest across its width – that is what gives you comfort in the end."

Krystian Kowalski

Kowalski grew up in a family of sculptors, studied Design Products at the Royal College of Art in London, and still shapes his designs by hand in his Warsaw workshop. His work has won the Red Dot, the German Design Award, the iF Design Award and the Good Design Award, and is held by the National Museums in Warsaw and Kraków.

"I didn't want to interfere with this design too much, or give expression to my own design ego. I wanted this chair to be contemporary in its details, beautiful in its proportions and, above all, comfortable."

hourglass chair

In good company

A part of the Visteria Foundation's exhibition of Polish modernism, the Hourglass Chair stands in the company of Katarzyna Kobro, Władysław Strzemiński, Roman Modzelewski and Teresa Kruszewska herself.

Polish Modernism. A Struggle for Beauty

Curated by Federica Sala and Anna Maga, at Willa Gawrońskich until 11 October 2026, after its first showing at Milan Design Week. Free entry, Wednesday to Sunday, 12.00–19.00, Al. Ujazdowskie 23.

National Museum in Warsaw

The two known 1963 originals are held in the museum's collection, where Anna Maga curates the design collection.

the family

Three seats, two frames

One frame of moulded plywood, formed on moulds made for this chair alone, in oak veneer or black lacquered beech, with three seats to choose from.

Hourglass Timber

A plywood seat finished to match the frame, with a shallow dish worked into it. The most direct reading of the form.

explore now

Hourglass Cane

Natural cane webbing, formed by hand onto the seat. Lighter and more open, with the variations in tone that natural cane carries.

explore now

Hourglass Soft

An upholstered seat pad for longer sitting, in the fabric you choose. It raises the seat by 18 mm.

explore now

Finishes

Three colours come in oak veneer, where grain and tone vary from chair to chair, as a natural material does. Black is a different build: beech, lacquered in RAL 9004, so the colour reads the same on every chair. 

Light Oak

Warm Oak

Brown Oak

Black, RAL 9004

hourglass chair in black finish

The same form, read as one line

The beech frame, lacquered in RAL 9004. Beech takes an opaque lacquer evenly, so the colour reads the same on every chair, and the cane is left natural against it.

explore now

Hourglass Chair Black – Cane, beech lacquered RAL 9004

in detail

Technical Specifications

Height: 72.5 cm, 70.5 cm at the arms

Width and depth: 55 × 52 cm

Seat: 45 cm diameter, 45 cm high (Soft: 46.8 cm)

Frame: moulded plywood, oak veneer or lacquered beech

Weight: 6 kg

Delivery: assembled, one chair per carton

Order now, delivered from the end of January

Each chair is made in a series, to order, with the first series shipping from the end of January 2027. Choose the frame, the seat and, for Soft, the fabric, and we confirm every detail with you before production begins.

Order yours

Visit the showroom