4
Chair
Chair
The first idea to build a chair like 4 comes from a visit to the local museum of history. There, I saw a very old photograph of man waving a wicker basket. They used to be a typical object in my country not long ago. I felt specially inspired by the process in that picture: the very act of waving the wicker by hand to build a rigid, conical structure. There was a strong sense of purpose and longing embedded in that crafted object. In order to build them, the wicker is laid out on the ground in a radial shape. Then, the wicker is bent by the ends to form the body of the basket, and this is when horizontal pieces are woven intercalated to form the final product.
There’s always been many kinds of wicker furniture, but I wanted to translate this shape and process in a more straight-forward way. So I decided to keep the idea as simple as possible by building a metal frame that would make up the body and weave the wicker on it to make the seat, which was to be in a solid semi-gloss black color following a modernist ideal of functionality. Bending points should be kept to a minimum and bending radius were to be standardized; all of this to make the chair as easy to build as possible. Metal parts had to go through a process of cutting optimization to reduce costs. Ergonomics also had to be early planned, because you don’t want to end up with an uncomfortable chair. But also, I didn’t want to sacrifice the form I intended to get. Oh and it had to be affordable, too.
I did many visits to experts in order to get advice and build the first pieces. It took me a year and a half to go from the museum visit to functional prototypes ready to be used and reproduced. So far it’s been selected in the shortlist for DIMUEBLE 2011 National Furniture Award and the prototypes exhibited in DesignFest and Expo Mueble this year. And there’s still more work to be done in order to make it go into actual production, specially the investment needed to get the machinery I need. I’m still working on it but I expect to fully manufacture it sometime in the future by myself and the craftsmen. Stay tuned.
There’s always been many kinds of wicker furniture, but I wanted to translate this shape and process in a more straight-forward way. So I decided to keep the idea as simple as possible by building a metal frame that would make up the body and weave the wicker on it to make the seat, which was to be in a solid semi-gloss black color following a modernist ideal of functionality. Bending points should be kept to a minimum and bending radius were to be standardized; all of this to make the chair as easy to build as possible. Metal parts had to go through a process of cutting optimization to reduce costs. Ergonomics also had to be early planned, because you don’t want to end up with an uncomfortable chair. But also, I didn’t want to sacrifice the form I intended to get. Oh and it had to be affordable, too.
I did many visits to experts in order to get advice and build the first pieces. It took me a year and a half to go from the museum visit to functional prototypes ready to be used and reproduced. So far it’s been selected in the shortlist for DIMUEBLE 2011 National Furniture Award and the prototypes exhibited in DesignFest and Expo Mueble this year. And there’s still more work to be done in order to make it go into actual production, specially the investment needed to get the machinery I need. I’m still working on it but I expect to fully manufacture it sometime in the future by myself and the craftsmen. Stay tuned.
The first sketch I did with front legs bending back to support a rear piece.
I took upon this idea and developed it further on CAD.
Several exploration renders. A squared shape was attempted at this stage but quickly discarded.
Finally, a shape I was satisfied with. Did some structural tests and it was good to go.
Blueprints.
A series of prints with renders to present the project:
