The History of the Argentine Butterfly Chair

Few pieces of furniture carry as much history, cultural identity, and design genius as the butterfly chair. Born in Buenos Aires in 1938, it went on to become one of the most iconic and widely reproduced chairs of the 20th century. Yet its Argentine roots are often overlooked. Here is the full story.

Buenos Aires, 1938: Three Architects and a Vision

The butterfly chair was designed by three young Argentine architects: Antonio Bonet, Juan Kurchan, and Jorge Ferrari Hardoy. The trio had recently returned from Paris, where they had worked in the studio of Le Corbusier, the Swiss-French pioneer of modern architecture. Inspired by the modernist movement and its belief that good design should be accessible, functional, and beautiful, they set out to create a chair that embodied those ideals.

The result was the BKF chair — named after their initials — a deceptively simple construction: a single continuous iron rod bent into a sculptural X-frame, with a single piece of leather or canvas draped over it. The leather sling, shaped like a butterfly in flight, gave the chair its popular nickname.

The Inspiration: A Victorian Folding Chair

The BKF chair was not created entirely from scratch. Bonet, Kurchan, and Ferrari Hardoy drew inspiration from a 19th-century British folding chair — a portable campaign-style seat used by officers and explorers. They took that utilitarian concept and transformed it into something entirely new: a chair that was at once modern, sculptural, and deeply comfortable.

The genius of the design lies in its tension. The leather sling is held in place purely by the geometry of the frame — no screws, no bolts, no attachments. The weight of the sitter pulls the leather taut, and the frame flexes slightly to accommodate the body. It is engineering and art in perfect balance.

From Buenos Aires to MoMA

In 1941, just three years after its creation, the butterfly chair was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York for its permanent collection. MoMA's endorsement catapulted the chair onto the world stage. It became a symbol of modernist living — appearing in design magazines, architect's offices, and progressive homes across the United States and Europe.

By the 1950s, the butterfly chair had become a cultural phenomenon. It appeared in the homes of artists, intellectuals, and bohemians. It was affordable enough to be accessible, yet distinctive enough to signal taste and sophistication. Knockoffs proliferated — at one point, an estimated five million copies had been produced worldwide, most without any acknowledgment of the original Argentine designers.

The Argentine Legacy

Despite its global fame, the butterfly chair has always been most deeply rooted in Argentina. In Buenos Aires, it is not a design curiosity or a vintage find — it is simply part of the fabric of daily life. You will find it on terraces and in living rooms, in design studios and family homes, crafted from the finest Argentine leather that develops a rich patina over decades of use.

Argentine craftspeople have long understood that the butterfly chair is only as good as the leather it is made from. The country's tradition of vegetable-tanned leather — slow-cured using natural tannins, supple and durable — is the perfect material for a chair designed to last a lifetime and beyond.

The BKF Chair Today

More than 85 years after its creation, the butterfly chair remains as relevant as ever. It has been reissued, reimagined, and referenced by designers around the world. But the original Argentine spirit — the combination of modernist geometry, natural materials, and honest craftsmanship — is best preserved in pieces made the way they always were: by hand, in Argentina, with leather that will only get better with age.

At Big BKF Buenos Aires, we craft each butterfly chair in the tradition of Bonet, Kurchan, and Ferrari Hardoy — honoring the design's heritage while building pieces that are made to be lived in, loved, and passed down.

Explore our collection of handcrafted butterfly chairs and discover the chair that changed design history.