David Horan Paper armchair

David Horan (born in Dublin, 1982) is a multidisciplinary designer and manufacturer based in London. With a Master of Arts in Design Products from the Royal College of Art 2013, he cut his cloth with London-designers Faye Toogood and Michael Anastassiades, before opening his own studio in 2021.

This handmade armchair is part of the inaugural furniture and lighting collection by Horan entitled Paper. The collection ‘Paper’, designed exclusively with Béton Brut gallery, sees Horan as a modern decoupeur, applying his material to an original series of works. The magic of paper is grounded in forms as precise as they are architectonic. Evoking Deco and Classical, the geometries contain harmony in ratio.

‘Paper’ is as much an experiment in de-composition as re-composition, the Dragon Skin armchairs, left raw, are made from vintage handmade paper, from a Unesco-heritage site, reclaimed from the giant dragons of Kagura dance-theatre. Horan worked with Mineo Kato from Japan Fine Papers in Hackney to source the washi. From the discards of the dragon’s Orochi-gami skin, remnants are restored piece-by-piece by a Japanese craftsman, before Horan takes it through a final metamorphosis.

Available on a made to order basis with custom upholstery options.

Each piece is signed and numbered on the underside.

H70 W85 D85cm

DH001