Max Lamb Makes Material Go Further With The “Min Chair”

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Summary:

  • Max Lamb’s Min Chair is a pine seat cut from a single timber dimension, producing near-zero waste across its legs, seat, and backrest
  • The chair is a production version of Lamb’s self-build Economy Chair concept, developed with Hem over several years and available from August at $899 USD / €799 EUR
  • It’s the third Lamb x Hem piece after the Last Stool (2015) and the Max Table (2019), both still in production

Max Lamb, a British designer, is releasing a new chair in August. Called the “Min Chair” and made by Hem, a Scandinavian design company, it’s a refined, production-ready version of his earlier “Economy Chair” idea.

The Min Chair is made of pine and designed with a clever idea: a single piece of wood is cut diagonally to form several supporting parts. This innovative approach uses less material than traditional chair-making methods, maximizing what you get from each piece of wood.

The artwork looks simple and raw, but like many of Lamb’s pieces, it’s actually built on a foundation of precise and thoughtful design.

Artist and designer Lamb frequently works with challenging physical materials, like pouring melted metal into sand or sculpting furniture from stone. In 2020, this led to the first version of the Economy Chair, initially made from polystyrene. This first chair was more of an experimental piece than something meant for sale, and its main goal was to show how strong construction could also be beautiful to look at.






Lamb explained that the chair’s design uses nearly half the material compared to a similar chair with straight, square legs. This is achieved through a clever construction method where cutting the wood at an angle essentially produces two legs from a single piece of timber.

So, we figured out how to make this cool thing in the workshop, but getting it ready for everyone to buy was way harder than we thought. Wood is just… unpredictable! Unlike plastic, it moves – it swells, shrinks, and shifts depending on the weather. We basically had to go back to the drawing board and redesign parts of it. We also had to tweak how we built things to make sure everything was consistent. One big change was gluing smaller pieces of wood together to make stronger, more reliable parts.

Hem is known for long-lasting partnerships with designers, focusing on timeless pieces instead of fleeting trends. This new chair builds on their successful relationship with Lamb, which started with the Last Stool in 2015 and continued with the Max Table in 2019—both of which are still available today.

We’re thrilled to keep collaborating with Max,” said Petrus Palmer, founder and CEO of Hem. “Our job was to get this new version launched while staying true to the original concept.”

As a big fan of design, I’ve noticed things are changing. Brands are really being called out now if they’re not honest about how sustainable they are. It’s not just about saying you’re eco-friendly anymore – companies are realizing they need to actually be sustainable, and it’s becoming a huge factor in what people buy. They’re looking at everything – how materials are sourced, how things are made – it’s a big deal for both the environment and for business now.

Lamb doesn’t explicitly market the chair as environmentally friendly, but the way it’s made fits with the growing trend in the furniture industry to reduce waste and simplify manufacturing.

Instead of hiding how it’s built with fancy details, the chair’s design clearly shows its simple construction: raw pine pieces, straight cuts, and nothing unnecessary. It doesn’t look minimalist – it looks exactly like a chair built from its basic parts.

The “Min” chair launches in August and will be priced at $899 USD (approximately €799).

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2026-05-21 19:00