Line/Structure

Spring semester is chair studio and we spend the entire semester developing several chair designs and building one. As part of our design development and as a way to ensure we don't decide on a chair design too quickly, we have to build six chair models, two each focusing on line/structure, plane/surface, and volume/form. All of the grads have felt the assignment is a little regressive, the sort of assignment given to first-year undergrads just learning about their design process. I like that it makes us edit our ideas though.

Last Tuesday the first round of models was due focusing on line/structure. Lately I have been interested in numbers and geometry so I decided to design a chair that was a 3D extrapolation of a 2D geometry.
This was my first attempt and I learned a bit about how I wanted each layer to contribute to the overall form. I scaled up the model for the next class and revised some issues while ignoring others. For instance, I still didn't think much about a seat or any other practical matters.


The use of a colored string really emphasized the linearity which disappeared a bit in the reflection of the steel wire. I also used a triangular system of interior lines which made the model much stronger than the first. The model creates some really amazing shadows and rolls around a little like a toy. Overall, I am really drawn to the form but am a little intimidated about pursuing it full scale. I do only have six weeks to build it...

I also wanted to make a model based on tension, since thin members can actually be quite strong when pulled. I used string to make a sort of puppet chair. The lines of the chair follow a classic form.


The model was successful in its puppet-ness but I decided it would lose a bit of its charm when realized at full scale. For one, it would be difficult to move around and manipulate and might therefore be too serious.

Plane/Surface next...