Modern Family: Wagner W-2020

Brand story by Barbara Jahn-Rösel
Wien, Austria
01.10.19

Sven von Boetticher has reinvigorated WAGNER's classic bar stool. The resulting W-2020 chair family is so comfortable and good-looking, if your partner doesn’t come home in the evening, you’ll have a good idea where they could be.

The new W-2020 is the successor to the bar chair – an integral part of the restaurant scene for the last 70 years. While the archetypal appearance remains, comfort levels break new ground

'Old school, new stool' or something similar, could have been the working title for a project undertaken by designer Sven von Boetticher, whereby WAGNER´s barstool from 1949 was put under the knife and given a modern, contemporary face. And just as that original barstool evokes images of the cosy taverns of yesteryear, so too will the updated version do for the bars, restaurants and homes of tomorrow.

The family seat

In purely formal terms, the chair has remained true to itself, even if it now bears a new name. With it’s four slightly sloping chair legs, the W-2020 carries on the tradition of its predecessor. It’s backrest can easily be removed and the chair quickly positioned somewhere else or in another context. Conviviality, you see, demands flexibility. And flexibility is also offered in relation to the choice of colours and material combinations. In order to create a whole family for this iconic chair, Sven von Boetticher has also designed stool and barstool variants which can be perfectly combined with the original chair. What may not at first glance be immediately recognisable is the W-2020’s wooden seat, which is reminiscent of the original model. It is embedded in a plastic shell to form a harmonious unit with the frame, while a shadow gap sets an elegant accent.

Sitting and sitting and sitting. The patented and completely invisible Dondola+ mechanism is installed under the seat. This allows the wooden seat to move in the plastic shell of the chair, stool or bar stool

Taking a new course

Behind the balanced proportions of the plastic shell however, lies innovative technology for optimal sitting comfort. The Dondola®+ technology for example, specially developed by the engineers from WAGNER, is integrated almost invisibly into the seat. It consists of a joint with which the seat gently rocks, resonating with every movement. The seat surface is cushioned by lateral dampers, so that the support, whilst always effective, is barely noticed. The archetypical tavern chair has been revitalised with this new, modern W-2020 version, inviting a new generation of people to sit and delight in its cosy embrace.