Inspired by the jiaoyi 交椅, the horseshoe-back folding chair once carried authority across empires. Chair 99+1 inherits its arc and turns motion into stillness. Where its ancestor upheld power in transit, this chair asks the sitter to arrive.
Ancient Chinese chairs trained uprightness, not ease. To sit was to bear responsibility.
Ka Fai "Mike" Lam 林家輝 absorbed their restraint and refusal of collapse, then translated their discipline into contemporary form.
Chair 99+1 took more than five years to resolve. Angles shifted by degrees until only structure remained.
ANCIENT GEOMETRY, MODERN LINEAGE
Horseshoe Back-folding Chair
1919: The May Fourth anti-imperialist movement.
A 19-inch leg base anchors the chair in the dawn of a modern intellectual awakening.
Every measurement encodes a pivotal moment in Chinese history into contemporary craftsmanship.
HISTORY ENGRAINED
1921: The founding of the Chinese Communist Party. Elements rotate and bench legs splay at 21 degrees, marking the year that redirected the nation's course.
1949: The founding of the People's Republic of China. Winglets rise at 49 degrees and the bench spans 49 inches, actualizing
a new structural era.
19
o
21
o
49
o
REALIGNING THE CIVIC POSTURE
Chair 99+1 grew from a study of ancient Chinese chairs. Not as a simple imitation. And instead as an earned inheritance.
For centuries, these chairs shaped posture rather than comfort, keeping the body upright to ensure the mind remained awake. To sit was to bear responsibility.
Mike Lam absorbed this logic of restraint, refining every angle until only pure structure and symbolism remained. Historical memory entered the chair as geometry; the years 1919, 1921, and 1949 became physical span and tilt. It stands as a modern object forged by ancient discipline. A quiet reminder carved in hardwood.
FIVE YEARS OF DELIBERATE
DISCIPLINE & RESTRAINT
Chair 99+1 required more than five years to research, design and build. Not because of structural complexity, but because of a profound sense of restraint. Every decision had to align engineering, symbolism, and lived meaning. Nothing was added casually; nothing remained unresolved.
Mike Lam did not begin by designing a chair. He began by questioning what an object assumes about civilization. In Chinese tradition, objects are not neutral; they shape posture, conduct, and attention.
Over five years, the chair was dismantled and rebuilt. Angles were adjusted by degrees, and proportions were tested for the dignity they required of the body, rather than ease alone.
Historical memory was embedded directly into the chair’s geometry, transforming politics into physical form. Chair 99+1 does not commemorate power; it asks whether culture can be carried forward through restraint, vigilance, and form. Integrity cannot be rushed.