The American industrial designer and inventor David Rowland is best known for his signature 40/4 chair. Released in 1964, it is so named because it is possible to stack forty chairs in just four feet – an unprecedented achievement that established an entirely new category of versatile seating.

This fascinating biography of David Rowland and his 40/4 chair, featuring more than 250 photographs and documents (many never seen before), tells the compelling story of his design practice and a singular chair, whose design, through the determination of its designer, became the commercially successful and influential classic that it is. The first monograph on American designer, David Rowland: 40/4 Chair, is published to mark the 60th anniversary of this timeless design and includes the wide range of Rowland’s work before and after the development of his masterpiece.