I believe that the best products enable a healthier lifestyle: I love my standing desk and how it adapts to my situational needs. My original design intent was to make a chair that had two modes: one that was for relaxing in ("off"), and one that primed you to be engaged and ready to work ("on").
Mechanism Exploration
Before thinking too much about the design of the chair, I decided to start exploring different adjustment mechanisms. I wasn't sure what was feasible and I wanted to design system that was easily understandable and made the barrier to changing modes as low as possible. But above all else, I wanted it to be fun and something that users enjoyed interacting with.
Choosing a Design Direction
I wanted to combine the textile and linkage ideas. The flexible nature of soft textiles allow them to drape across supports while contouring to a user's body to form a supportive sitting surface: what would happen if you changed the position of the supports, and what is the best way to change the shape of the textile (and thus, the chair)?
Functional Prototyping
Having decided on using a textile with two fixed ends and a third actuating bar used to change its shape, I needed to figure out how to make that work in a functioning chair, as well as the appropriate dimensions. In other words, it was time for full-scale prototyping.
Final Design
The materials and industrial aesthetic I chose were a happy medium between form and function. In an attempt to reduce the physical and aesthetic weight of the chair, I took design cues from the bamboo scaffolding I grew up surrounded by in Hong Kong that has both rigid structure and visual transparency. This inspired the matrix design of the sidewalls, the green mesh, wooden dowels, and plastic hardware. I also considered the assembly, incorporating features that make it easy to construct and deconstruct the Construct chair.
Fabrication
And finally, time to turn this design into a real, working product. I turned the handles down on the lathe, bored the wooden dowels and press fit the pins, tapped the bracing rods, and sewed the textile assembly. After problems with the waterjet, I was fortunate to work with MJ Celco, a metal forming factory, to manufacture the aluminum sidewalls.
Showcase
I was honored to show and present the Construct chair to members and donors of the Segal Design Institute, as well as being part of the Graduate Showcase!
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