Final Product

The chair legs appear longer >> narrow camera angle ( I guess...)

Seat >> 30mm Tasmanian Oak

Legs >> 30mm dia Tasmanian Oak ( Danish Oil finish)

Back Rest >> 3 layer 1.5 mm Bending Plywood (Spray putty, sanded down to create (modern) rustic look)

Inspiration >>

Composition of intersecting basic geometric shapes in Zaha Hadid's Vitra fire station, interpreted into organic language of Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim museum.

Basically, the seat comes in 3 main components >> Seat + Back rest + Legs 4X.

All of the components are removable, which will fit in 50 x 50 x 15 box.

Considering box size from the brief (50 x 50 x 50 cm), I decided to get the chair in to 2 components >> Back Rest + Seat with legs attached for the easy assembly.

Chair Prototype Build

First leg design (tapered + rounded)

Clamping 3 layers of plywood

I changed the seat design many times. Even after I cut the timber, I trimmed off the seat because it looked too big for the back rest.

The white patches are putty filled in the old holes for the legs.

Refined chair design without wooden cylinder to connect legs to the seat,

now legs are joined straight to the seat with allen head bolts.

Back Rest

Material:

3 layers of 1.5mm Bendy Ply

After the template was cut, first layer of plywood was bent using heat gun (which surprisingly easy), then before the second layer of plywood glued and clamped on to the first layer, it was cut into 4 parts to give more strength.

Then, the last layer was glued on to the second layer and later trimmed off.

Back rest template was cut using jigsaw (not very good idea) and cutter knife (better, but it took longer).

Concept Development

From three initial concepts, I chose the third concept because I am interested in doing some experimentation with bent plywood.

RENDERINGS

Material consideration 1: plywood seat + back rest

Material consideration 2: solid timber seat + aluminium sheet

Ergonomic Study

MOCK-UP

1: 5 Mock up

1: 1 Mock up

Blue foam seat + Cardboard backrest

CONCEPTS

Concept 3:

>> Legs are attached to the seat with threaded steel rod/dowel

>> Back Rest (Pivot Joint)

Material Consideration: Legs + Seat >> Solid timber , Back Rest >> Plywood

Concept 2:

>>4 parts:

Legs >> Each front leg diagonally connected to the back leg with steel bracing.

Seat

Back rest >> slotted in to seat

>>Material Consideration:

Legs >> solid timber / Tubular steel

Seat >> Plywood

Back rest >> Plywood

Concept 1:

3 separate parts >> Front legs, Seat, Folding Back Legs + Back Rest

Front legs attached to seat with threaded rod/dowel.

Back legs are slotted in to the holes on the seat.

Material Consideration >> Solid Timber

PROJECT 2 >> Research B

Exploded Drawings
(Photos + more details soon!)

PROJECT 2 >> Research A

PROJECT 1

Photo Essay + Sketches

Detailed Investigation

LC1 Chair - Le Corbusier

Le Corbusier (born Charles-Edoard Jeanneret) was a Swiss-born French architect and designer, largely contributed to the modern architecture of the first half 20th century.
His designs were notable for incorporating clean, a radical simplification of form, a rejection of ornament, and minimalist functionality of modern architecture which are now considered to be precursors of modern furniture design.
Some of his famous furniture pieces are the now-iconic LC1, LC2, LC3, and LC4, originally titled:
"Basculant" (LC1),
"Fauteuil grand confort, petit modèle", English : “great comfort sofa, small model" (LC2)
"Fauteil grand confort, grand modèle", English: "great comfort sofa, large model" (LC3), and
"Chaise longue", English: "Long chair" (LC4).
The LC1 (stands for Le Corbusier 1) Chair was designed by Le Corbusier in 1928 in collaboration with his cousin, Pierre Jeanneret, and French interior designer Charlotte Perriand. In the 1930s, the Thonet furniture company began production of the LC1 Chair until it was taken up by the Embru company of Switzerland. In 1959, the LC1 and the rest of the Le Corbusier furniture line was re-introduced with several modifications by Heidi Weber, a Zurich museum owner and associate of Le Corbusier.
The LC1 Chair consists of a chrome-plated tubular steel frame with a leather seat, backrest and a matching pair of arm rests. The seat and backrest were originally made from ponyskin, red saddle leather or black aniline leather and the arm rests were basically leather straps wound around the side of the steel frame.
What was new about this chair was the adjustable seat and back-rest which is the translation of a customary basic form which emphasised the functionality of the simple tilting mechanism. The back section can be tilted by two side attachments and thus supports the back in any position. The back section is pushed forward and supported together with the seat by a single connector which is welded from one straight and one bent tube.
Some of the relevant design features to early 20th C design characteristics, such as the use of steel as the main material, offered significant industrial innovation, emphasising the labour-saving potential, made it viable for mass production. The arrangement of thin tubular steels, introduced the ‘machine age’ aesthetic, creating visually weightless quality.