Mini Furniture: Chairs for Children

Small chairs take center stage at MK&G Hamburg in Mini Furniture: Chairs for Children, an exhibition that looks at design through scale, posture, and the way children inhabit space. The show brings together around 200 pieces from the 19th century to today, with works by Alvar Aalto, Charles and Ray Eames, Verner Panton, Marcel Breuer, and contemporary designers.

The exhibition treats children’s furniture as a serious design field, shaped by changing ideas around education, play, comfort, and independence. Some chairs mirror adult icons at a smaller size, while others respond directly to how children move, climb, sit, and test the world around them. Through these objects, the show opens a broader view of design history, where size becomes a way to read social attitudes as much as form.