This final project for Space and Materiality was the most interesting out of all my final projects. We had to work in groups and make chairs that would cater to a particular chosen community. After a short deliberation, our group decided to go with collapsible chairs for a moving community. Our focus was mostly on big communities who set themselves down in whatever area they can i.e. Woodstock and the Dakota Access Pipeline. We wanted our chairs to be sustainable as well as collapsible so we opted for no hardware and to make our chairs easy to move and ship. The idea we went by was, “How can we design, not seating for a specific community but, seating around which many different communities can come together; not seating for a specific space, but seating that can create a space where ever you set it down?”
This is ultimately the mood board I came up with. The idea of interlocking parts definitely came into play here as our way of making it more sustainable and people like Tom McGlynn and Allan Wexler (both professors at Parsons) actually created similar seating we were interested in.
Miri and I had a similar group we wanted to cater to from the start so we were able to get a good head start on our work. First I created a cardboard mockup of what I wanted to achieve. I came up with two ideas (ultimately I went with the second prototype) and in theory the first one was the best option but because of the different materials I couldn’t really rely on the prototype to be sure that with wood my project would turn out the same.
I started by cutting out four 4ft x 1ft rectangles and marking my desired cuts. I made sure the pieces could interlock well and create the chair I wanted to achieve.
As you can see here, the pieces fit together perfectly and I really liked the way the X looked.
In the beginning everything was going swimmingly. However as I started to delve further into the project, the chair wasn’t stable enough and I was afraid it would break. After expressing my concerns to Aviva, she suggested I get rid of the bottom plank and attach a rope or rod of some sort to hold the chair in place when pressure was applied. I did exactly that and I was glad because it turned out much more stable than before. I finished the plywood by adding a darker stain which I believe complimented the chair particularly well. Overall, this project was an interesting experience. If I was able to do this project over, I would reconsider the scale of the chair and a figure out a much more comfortable elevation in which someone could sit on it.
