STAGE 1: RESEARCH

CAD DRAWINGS AND RENDERS

 

WRITTEN STATEMENT

The chair I have chosen is a great challenge, mainly because it is of great design already and I wish to disassemble all of it and re-interpret all of its structure and materials into another type of chair.

By this I mean that this chair is quite minimalistic, it elegantly uses tubular steel and the minimal use of leather for upholstery and it is of sophisticated environments yet very simple in its shape and manufacture. The chair itself is made in 2 parts the legs and the seating, in which both are bent into shape and then slotted together, the leather, is then attached via screws on the underside and back to hide visually. The form itself is not simply of an object but rather it plays of the manipulation of our visual senses in which it interacts with the light shinning off the chromed metal.

Its presence itself enhances and heightens what sitting really is, and is surprisingly comfortable for surfaces which are mainly flat on the areas of contact, it is a very inspirational work and I would like to take upon some divergent thinking into redesigning and re-interpreting all of its features and functions into a new chair that synchronises with the user.

By the theme of synchronicity I mean that the user does not adapt to the chair, but rather the chair itself adapts to the user, so really what I propose to do with this chair is to transform it into a user adapting chair, a universal chair.

In-Class Exploded Drawing Exercise

Choosing a chair from Lucky Coq, it had many different manufacture techniques and a variety of components which made it an ideal subject for the exploded drawing, the main parts being tubular steel and the cushioning with braces to hold it together and the back legs were welded together.

Detailed Investigation

     (a) Exploded perspective drawing

(b) Contextual Essay

Marcel Lajos Breuer (1902 – 1981) was a Hungarian modernist designer, who had studied and taught at the Bauhaus during the 1920’s, he later worked with Jack Pritchard under the Isokon company, this further helped in establishing his designs specifically his Long Chair, this was accomplished through the use of bending plywood and experimenting with the material itself.

His early career was majorly involving the use of tubular steel, which is used in another one of his works the ‘Wassily Chair’, he had shifted to different materials later which lead to the use of plywood which then continued to the creation of the Long Chair. He was influenced through modular construction of items and also its simplicity; this was later part of his inspiration of Alvar Aalto’s Paimio Armchair which is part of the styling towards his Long Chair.

The Long Chair is considered one of the most important pieces of furniture, especially through its simple form and structure which is not only strong but visually appealing. The frame itself is of simple construction and yet expresses a form which carved itself into modernist ideals, this revolutionised a more organic styling of the plywood and transferred the ideas of modernism into the chairs form.

The design is very inter-war modernist in principle, and had given a representation of every element in the design principles during that period, the material usage and the use of experimental materials had given this chair its unique characteristic, this is seen not just through its materials but also its manufacturing processes which would have been just as experimental in the time.

NGV Sketches and Photo Essay