Design Idea and Concept
Client: Alexa
When discussing the idea for my design with Alexa, she mentioned that she wanted a stool like steating structure that is suitable for outdoors and public areas- which is why I decided to make my design a bit shorter and smaller. I also noticed that Alexa had a lot of stationaries that had small animal designs on it which prompt me to have my chair design be inspired by animal characteristics.
Research-
HYBRID NO 2: BUNNY
Designer: Merve Kahraman
Materials: Cream lacquered finish and leather upholstery
Date: 2022
“Hybrid No 2.” Merve Kahraman, http://www.mervekahraman.com/hybrid-no-2#hybrid-no-2-info.
“Capitello” Chair
Designer: Studio 65 (Italian)
Materials: Polyurethane foam, latex
rubber containing paint
Date: 1971
“‘Capitello’ Chair.” Metmuseum.org, https://www.metmuseum.org/
art/collection/search/492747.
3″ Scale Model (Alexa’s of myself)-
3D and orthographic drawing
3″ Scale Model (seating structure)-
Flat Template-
My structure comprises of 7 individual pieces on 2 pieces of 40 x 60 inch corrugated cardboard.
Final Seating Structure-
Full Scale Structure
The seating structure itself is pentagonal with two pyramid-rectangular prisms on two corners to represent the ears of cats. The inner supporting planes consists of a middle plane that goes down the middle of the pentagon prism to connect the outer structure together. There is a long folded piece in the middle for extra support.
The design underwent many changes, with there being difficulties with fitting the two pyramids into the main pentagonal structure. Originally, the outer pentagon structure was going to be double the size and folded in half horizontally to allow for slits and extra strength but it did not fit onto the pieces of cardboard I had.
During the final critique and test sits, I realised that there were some empty/ negative spaces with the main seating structure that caused the pentagon lid to sink in a bit, so if I were to redo this project, I would have liked to possibly double the vertical supports in the middle to avoid the sinking of the seating plane.
Nevertheless, I think I learned a lot from this project, which really showed the accumulation of everything we have learned this semester, from desiging the template to figuring out ways to join pieces together with slits and joints.
