HAY Backflip Chair
Designed by Icelandic designer Gudmundur Ludvik, Backflip challenges the idea that flexible seating has to sacrifice comfort or aesthetics for functionality.
Backflip Chair
At first glance, HAY’s Backflip Chair is a refined wooden chair with the simplicity and material honesty associated with Scandinavian design. Then the backrest rotates, allowing the chair to fold in a single motion. Designed by Icelandic designer Gudmundur Ludvik, Backflip challenges the idea that flexible seating has to sacrifice comfort or aesthetics for functionality.
A Better Approach to Flexible Seating
Folding chairs have traditionally been designed around one priority: convenience. Backflip takes a different approach.
Ludvik set out to create a chair that would stand on its own as a thoughtfully designed piece of furniture, whether it was folded away or used every day. Its folding mechanism is integrated discreetly into the design, allowing function to become part of the chair rather than define its appearance.
Simplicity Meets Ingenuity
Backflip is crafted from solid wood with a molded plywood backrest, bringing together traditional woodworking and an unexpectedly clever mechanism. Clean lines and understated proportions allow it to move easily between environments without looking temporary.
Available in natural beech and a range of water-lacquered finishes, the collection offers flexibility in both function and expression.
Made for Spaces That Change
Spaces rarely serve just one purpose. A meeting room may need additional seating one day and open floor space the next. A learning environment may shift between individual and group activities. Hospitality and social spaces may need to adapt as people gather, move, and connect.
Backflip makes that flexibility easier without introducing seating that feels temporary or secondary. When additional chairs aren't needed, they can fold away and be stored using the coordinating wall bracket, ready to return when the space changes again.
Designed by Gudmundur Ludvik
Icelandic designer Gudmundur Ludvik brings a background in carpentry, cabinetmaking, sculpture, and furniture design to his work. Grounded in Scandinavian woodworking traditions, his practice explores the relationship between simplicity and complexity through material, construction, and function.
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