Backflip Nominated for the Icelandic Design Awards 2026
Backflip is a folding chair designed by Guðmundur Lúðvík for HAY. It reimagines a familiar piece of furniture, concealing the folding mechanism within the backrest and placing beauty, comfort and form at the forefront. Backflip is nominated for the Icelandic Design Awards 2026 in the category Product.
The design revisits a long-standing furniture typology and rethinks it from the ground up. Folding chairs have traditionally been treated as secondary pieces in the home, chairs kept as spares. Their design has often involved compromises between comfort, appearance and foldability. In Guðmundur’s hands, the folding chair becomes first and foremost a good chair that can also be folded away, bringing qualities once considered incompatible together in a unified whole.
In everyday use, Backflip stands alongside conventional chairs in terms of quality and comfort. It can also be folded with a single movement, hung up and stored when not needed. It is equally at home around a dining table, in meeting rooms or in restaurants, and is never conceived as a temporary seating solution.
The chair’s defining feature is its ingenious folding mechanism, which is entirely concealed within the backrest. The chair can be folded in one continuous movement using just one hand. Hinges and mechanical components disappear from view, making the functionality an integral part of the chair rather than an addition to it. The chair is just as beautiful when hanging in storage.
The jury considers the chair’s technical precision and understated form to create a unified whole. Solid beechwood and a moulded plywood backrest give the chair a timeless, elegant and familiar appearance.
Backflip is a folding chair designed by Guðmundur Lúðvík for HAY that reimagines a long-established furniture typology. The folding mechanism becomes part of the form itself rather than an add-on, allowing the chair to be folded in one fluid movement with a single hand. Its timeless, elegant design reveals little of the sophisticated engineering behind it.
Guðmundur Lúðvík is one of Iceland’s leading furniture designers. Based in Denmark, he has designed for numerous companies that place quality, aesthetics and sustainability at the forefront. He developed the Backflip chair in collaboration with the Danish design brand HAY.
The Icelandic Design Awards 2026 ceremony will take place at Gróska on 5 November, accompanied by a related discussion. Save the date!
The Icelandic Design Awards highlight the importance and quality of design and architecture in Iceland, emphasising their impact on quality of life, value creation and sustainability for society as a whole. The awards will be presented for the thirteenth time this year, across three categories: Product // Place // Project. In addition, an award for Best Investment in Design and the Icelandic Design Awards Honorary Award will be presented.
The Iceland Design and Architecture Centre organises the awards in collaboration with the Museum of Design and Applied Art and the Iceland University of the Arts, with support from the Housing and Construction Authority, Business Iceland, Gróska, the University of Iceland Science Park and Blue Lagoon Iceland.
