Emeco

About

Emeco is an American manufacturer of aluminium furniture based in Hanover, Pennsylvania. The company specialises in durable seating and tables made largely from recycled aluminium and other reclaimed materials, and it manufactures its products by hand in the United States. Its best-known product, the 1006 Navy Chair, has remained in continuous production since the 1940s and serves as the reference point for much of the company's later work. The business was founded in 1944 by Wilton C. Dinges as the Electric Machine and Equipment Company, a name later shortened to Emeco. The defining commission came from the United States Navy, which needed a lightweight, corrosion-resistant chair able to withstand salt air and the shock of shipboard conditions aboard submarines and vessels. Working in collaboration with the Aluminum Company of America (ALCOA), Dinges developed an all-aluminium chair, the 1006, in 1944. The chair is produced from recycled aluminium through a process the company describes as comprising 77 steps, including hand forming, welding, grinding, tempering and anodising. The company states the chair is tested to last 150 years and is guaranteed for life. In 1946 Dinges relocated production to Hanover, Pennsylvania, where the company has remained. Ownership passed to Gregg Buchbinder, who acquired the company in 1998 and leads it together with the Buchbinder family. Under Buchbinder's direction, Emeco shifted from a primarily industrial supplier toward a design-led furniture maker while retaining its Pennsylvania hand-manufacturing base. The company has placed recycled and reclaimed materials at the centre of its identity. In addition to recycled aluminium, Emeco has developed furniture from recycled plastic bottles, reclaimed wood fibre, cork and other waste streams. Designer collaborations have been central to the company's modern output. The first of these was with the French designer Philippe Starck, beginning around 2000. Starck's Hudson chair, an aluminium chair with a polished finish, was created for the Hudson Hotel in New York and later entered the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. Starck went on to design further pieces for Emeco, including the Broom collection, introduced in 2012, which is made from a composite of reclaimed polypropylene and waste wood fibre. Another widely cited product is the 111 Navy Chair, developed with The Coca-Cola Company and released in 2010; each chair is moulded from at least 111 recycled PET bottles, which is the origin of its name. The company has also worked with the Japanese studio Nendo on the SU collection of stools and tables. Emeco's products are used across several markets. The furniture is sold for residential settings, where the aluminium and recycled-material chairs and stools function as both seating and design objects, and it is widely specified for hospitality interiors such as hotels, cafés and restaurants. The company also serves contract and office environments, and because much of its range is approved for indoor and outdoor use, many products are suited to terraces, courtyards and other exterior settings. Distribution runs through design retailers, architecture and interior-design specifiers, and the company's own channels, with products also held by museums and design institutions. As a maker of aluminium furniture, Emeco occupies a distinct position by combining long-running hand production in the United States with an emphasis on recycled furniture and reclaimed materials. The Navy chair remains the company's signature object and a recurring basis for new designs, while the wider catalogue extends the same material principles into chairs, stools, tables, benches and accessories. The pricing of its products reflects the hand-made, materials-intensive process, placing the brand in a premium segment of the furniture market.