Best of Design Democracy '08: Seating
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 02.12.08
As Lloyd noted earlier, Design Democracy '08 is looking to prove that mass customization, ultra-local production and downloadable designs are all viable methods for reconfiguring the way we consume things. Focusing on furniture, they're hosting a competition whose winner gets a high-profile showcase at this spring's International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York; designers who dig flat pack, CNC routing and other tools of this next-generation manufacturing system are encouraged to submit designs by March 21. Until then, we'll take a closer look at some of our favorite submitted designs. First up: seating.
Rocker Prototype 3 (there's also Rocker Prototype 2 and Rocker Prototype), submitted by HollerDesign, applies this cool new design paradigm to a classic form: the rocking chair. With smart materials use and a clever design, a single flat sheet of wood becomes a three-dimensional rocker. Hit the jump for more chic seating competing for a spot on stage at ICFF.
"Lounge Chair" was submitted by user kmills, who says, "The idea of this chair is that it is simple and geometric, which is complimented by the sophistication of the intricate interlacing of the joinery. This chair is made with 5/8" pieces of ply wood. The light plywood is maple and finished in a clear lacquer, the dark ply is again maple with a dark brown lacquer finish. All of the pieces can be put in place easily and secured with the aid of adhesive. Along with the ease of the the chairs user friendly construction process, it is also attractive and structurally secure."
"Embrace Bench" was submitted by Peter Chen, who says, "I like benches, especially the mid-century classic Nelson Bench. I love plywood, especially the edge quality of high grade multiply plywood. The Embrace is my tribute to the embodiment of form and material. Designed to emphasize the inherent aesthetic of multi-layered plywood, the EMBRACE is the essence of structural purity. Each u-shaped leg is connected to the top via the two aluminium rods. The rods are captured in the holes of the leg and the c-shaped grooves on the bottom of the seat. The c-grooves 'embrace' the rods, creating the structural system to lock all components together. There are no other fasteners. Friction holds everything."
Stay tuned for more closer looks at some of the furniture designs that may have a say in the way we approach manufacturing and production for the next generation. ::Context Furniture and ::Design Democracy '08
Pretty much, every single piece of crappy furniture from every big box retailer packs flat. Sure, there are always chunks of foam in there too, but that is easy to change. Cutting it all out of one piece of wood is neat-o and fun to figure out, but where do the scraps go?
yeah, not for nothing, but mass manufactured wood products are far less wasteful then what you're showing. By the very nature of the economics, wood factories are far more effecient with their raw materials than whoever has designed that flat pack piece of crap.
I think you are missing the point, the nice presentation of the chair is to illustrate a technique. mass-customization is the future of manufacturing and will instantly reduce waste and resources if adapted. I encourage you to learn more about it.
not missing any point... the technique is flawed.
i encourage designers to learn about manufacturing and spectators to the process to learn when they're out of their depth.
I feel the need to clarify the original intent for my project shown above (Holler Design: Prototype Rocker). Its original meaning has been misconstrued which is mainly my fault. My concept was originally inspired by the childhood memory of putting together plastic model car parts. In no way was it ever conceived of as a critique of or a solution for sustainability in furniture manufacturing.
Essentially the concept is a scaled up version of plastic model car parts. Instead, in my design the components are assembled to construct a piece of furniture instead of a model car. In a perfect world the preferred method of manufacture is injection molded plastic. The pieces snap out of the frame and are assembled using engineered joints that were cast into the plastic. Similar to Chris Martin's PS Ellan chair for Ikea. Seen here.
While I believe that sustainability is an important issue that should be taken into consideration when designing objects, it was not my primary goal when designing this object. The most sustainable thing that one can do is to do nothing at all, but that wouldn't be very fun. My apologies for the confusion.
Holler D