Marc Newson originally produced the Lockheed Lounge as the centerpiece of an exhibition of his pieces at the Roslyn Oxley Gallery in Sydney. It was widely acclaimed and was bought by the National Gallery of Australia.

Its concept was based »loosely, very loosely« on the chaise longue in Jacques-Louis David's 1800 portrait of Madame Recamier. »I had this image of a fluid, aluminium form. The shape was sculpted out of a piece of foam, the exact same way you'd create a surfboard. The only way to get the aluminium on was to beat little pieces of metal into shape with a wooden mallet and attach them with rivets. That's where the airplane metaphor came from. So I called it the Lockheed Lounge.