Roland Rainer

Roland Rainer, born in 1910, studied at the Technical University in Vienna. In 1953 he became Professor for Housing, Urban Planning and Regional Planning. Collaboration with Wilkhahn began. Back in Vienna, he was Principal of the Akademie der Bildenden Künste until 1980, and until 1999 he was President of the Austrian Art Senate. He died in Vienna in 2004 at the age of 94. His furniture designs for Wilkhahn were characterized by natural form, reduced to essentials. The stackable chair in beechwood for concourse seating (21A, 1958-1966) and the multi-purpose chair (702, 1961-1966) with an unmistakable steel tube frame and a backrest with forward curvature that also functioned as an armrest set new standards.