Design Moment: Poäng chair, 1976

In whatever market it is in, Ikea – through a combination of design and price – has a way of dictating the dominant interior style. Its bestselling chair is the ubiquitious Poäng, created in 1976 by Japanese designer Noboru Nakamura, who had come to Sweden to learn about Scandinavian design, working in collaboration with Lars Engman, the behemoth retailer’s director of design.

The easy chair’s immediate success was perhaps down to its familiarity. Its bentwood frame, cantilevered seat and curved backrest resembles Alvar Aalto’s 1939 Model 406 chair, although instead of Aalto’s classic webbed seating, the Poäng was upholstered, the fabric like a sling making the back and seat.

The chair has been tweaked many times since it was designed with different fabrics and colourways – even a rocking chair version as pictured – though a major change was in 1992 when its original tubular steel component was swapped for an all-wood frame, it was also made flat-packed, and its name was changed from the very un-Ikea Poem to Poäng.