Cassina 4 Chaise longue à réglage continu (LC4)

The LC4’s authorship is shared by Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand. The chaise longue was designed in 1928 and exhibited at the Paris Salon d’Automne the following year, placing it within the late-1920s design story.^[1,2]

Cassina places the beginning of its production of the LC4 in 1965, after the design’s 1928 creation and 1929 exhibition. The later date belongs to the company’s production history, not to the design chronology.^[1,2]

The name “Chaise longue à réglage continu” points to the chair’s defining gesture: a reclining surface that can be adjusted continuously. The current Durable version has a polished-chrome tubular-steel frame and a black-painted tubular base beneath the upholstered form.^[1,2]

Cassina’s current Durable edition uses recycled-polyester wadding in the mattress, blown recycled-polyester fibre in the headrest, and a Velcro attachment intended to ease disassembly.^[1,2]

The chrome tubular frame and black base establish the LC4’s visible architecture. Durable’s quieter changes concern the parts supported by that frame: recycled-polyester wadding in the mattress, blown recycled-polyester fibre in the headrest and a Velcro attachment on the inside. Shape, filling and fastening answer different design questions. A familiar outline does not mean every hidden component is unchanged.^[1]

The attachment is intended to ease disassembly. It is therefore useful to distinguish taking a component apart from changing the reclining position during use. One concerns construction; the other is the gesture named by “réglage continu”. When comparing a current Durable with a historical example, label the edition before describing the filling. The design’s 1928 origin and a contemporary material specification belong on different lines of the same history.^[1]