2.5 Chair
This project was done for the course “Bits & Atoms” taught by Sophia Brueckner at the University of Michigan. We were meant to make an heirloom using 3D rendering and digital fabrication. Although completed, this project did not meet my standards, and I am planning on making a second variation.
Initial Ideation
The process began with initial sketches. I knew I wanted to make an arm chair, but I wasn’t sure how I would make it look. I focused my research in two distinct style: ornamental gothic style and midcentury modern. I looked at designers like Pierre Jeannette and Jean Prouve. I also looked at traditional gothic ornaments present in cathedrals and art. My initial sketches are below.
Digital Ideation
After having a general idea of the direction I wanted to move. I went onto Fusion to start creating my form in 3D space. I thought fusion would be the best software for this project, but I could not get an interesting silhouette. The more organic my forms got the more “graphic” my design got. I decided to move to Rhino.
Digital Ideation (Rhino)
After working in Rhino for some time I finally settled on a final design. The armchair took inspiration from midcentury modern furniture, and the final project would consist of an armchair and an ottoman. The materials used would be plywood, steel, upholstery foam, and textile.
Digital Fabrication
Considering my chair had some bends in it, I would have to find a way to realize this. I knew that steam bending doesn’t work all that well on plywood, so I decided to do kerf cutting. We had some samples in the studio of kerfed wood at a much smaller scale, so I did that calculations to and sent a test to see if the kerfs would work with my much larger sheet of wood. The test came back good, so I was able to continue on and send the rest of my pieces to the CNC machine. The video to the right shows the flexibility of 1/2 inch plywood after CNC kerf cutting.
Since the wood came out so flexible, I had to have a way to reinforce it. I was already planning on using steel legs, so I decided to plasma cut a sheet of steel to reinforce the seat and the back of the chair. This would add strength, retain the bend I wanted, and make the joints between the pieces easier. I used a plasma cutter to cut out the sheets of steel to the exact dimension of the plywood.
My final digital fabrication process for this project was laser cutting textile for the cushions. I hand dyed heavyweight canvas in an indigo vat. I used a Japanese technique called shibori, which is a resist dye technique. This gave the textile an interesting pattern. I thought that the blue would complement the wood and steel nicely, and I wanted to experiment more with shibori dyeing. I used the laser cutter to cut the cushion pattern out to the exact dimensions that I needed for my upholstery foam.
Traditional Fabrication
Metal Working
This was my first time working with metal, so I knew I was in for a challenge. I had to learn all new tools and skills including sawing, welding, polishing, and sealing. Metal working took up the bulk of this projects time. I had to make sure everything was at just the right angle and make sure my welds were clean. This was incredibly difficult because this was my first time using most of these tools. I listed a ton of images throughout the process below.
Wood Working
Although I had worked with wood before, I wasn’t all that familiar with plywood. Considering my pieces had a ton of kerfs I had to do a lot of hand finishing and sanding. Thankfully the CNC did most of the woodworking that I needed to do, so most of my time just went to finishing up the finer details of the work.
Finishing
Finishing was fairly simple. I decided to put a stain on the wood, add a cushion, and seal the steel. The most difficult part of the finishing process was bonding the wood to the steel. I used an epoxy glue, but I was worried that this would not hold. It ended up working just fine. Another struggle was adding the stain with all the kerfs. This was a struggle and in the end some spots are more saturated than others.
Product in Use
Challenges
My project came with a myriad of challenges. I used a ton of new tools and skills I was not familiar with at all. This came with a number of learning opportunities. One mistake was the scale. This project gets it name from my professor joking that my chair could fit two whole people. We tested it and it could fit two people and more. This extra space accounted for arms that did not make the final cut. However, my biggest mistake was making the back support out of 16gauge sheet metal. Although I welding two pieces together, it just wasn’t strong enough to hold the weight of the user. This render the chair basically unusable. If I were to do this project again, I would use traditional lumber instead of plywood, and I would test different ways to attach the seat to the back. Something much sturdier while still being visually appealing. In the end I’m incredibly happy with all I learned in this project, and I look forward to making a second iteration of this chair that is truly functional.