This collection of chairs are from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. A few months ago one of us was graced with the opportunity to make a visit and to explore a selection of chairs. Here are a few we thought we'd share on our blog. Prior to our design specification, we thought it would be best to explore as many designs of chairs as possible, looking at different forms of chairs. This helped us generate different forms of chairs for our design ideas; although we were challenged with the restrictions on our cardboard usage which therefore meant there were various forms that we were not able to explore through our design.
From here we decided to do a bit of research closer to home; we took a walk through the Parkside Building of Birmingham City University and see the variation of chairs in different locations of the building. Conducting this research first-hand gave us the opportunity to test each chair and consider the texture, comfortability of the chair, the feelings and mood induced by the chair as well as the use. Being able to sit in the chairs also allowed us to consider body forms and how that might affect our design process. Of course each chair was in a specific location for a reason which would inevitably change the function of the chair. We were inspired most by the chairs/benches stationed in front of the Parkside campus building. They came across as innovative, reason being is that usually we have a basic perception of what outside benches would look like because the use of them is simply to sit and enjoy the world around us, but these particular benches came in a variety of shapes; this allows the users to choose which bench suits them most, which can of course change at will of the user. For example certain benches would be better used for lounging than concentrated reading or eating lunch. Although the benches didn't directly affect our design, it set on the right track and gave us a better idea of how to make a 'client orientated' product.
As well as the research we did into the chairs from the V&A and The Parkside Campus building we thought it would be best for us to also look into examples of how cardboard chairs are made; because of the restrictions that were made on the usage of cardboard we had to be more creative about how we were going to design our cardboard chair. But it soon became clear that are 'methods' for making a functional cardboard chair. It was imperative to think about how the chair would hold up and perfectly suit the client at the time, one without the other would have been useless. After looking at examples of cardboard chairs we discovered that putting the chair together using slits, folds and slots worked best. These methods seemed to work with the grain of cardboard better than any other, and if designed well these methods would hold up well against the weight of ones body. Although we did have trouble with some of these methods throughout our design process, we believe the restriction on cardboard was our greatest disadvantage. But this simply meant we had to change our design and think about what could work best with what we had. These changes will be seen throughout our design process.
References
Van Severen, 2001, Low Chair [image online] Available at: http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O62433/low-chair-chair-van-severen-maarten/
Peter Ghyczy, 1968, Garden Egg Chair [image online] Available at: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/g/the-garden-egg-chair/
Author Unknown, 1985, Chair [image online] Available at: http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O184495/chair-unknown/
Arad Ron, 1991, Little Heavy [image online] Available at: http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O50990/little-heavy-chair-arad-ron/
Brazier- Jones, 1988, Atlantis Chair [image online] Available at: http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O66413/atlantis-chair-armchair-brazier-jones-mark/
Aarnio Eero, 1968, Pastilii Chair [image online] Available at: http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O132487/pastilli-chair-armchair-aarnio-eero/
Paulin Pierrre, 1966, Model 582 [image online] Available at: http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O129434/model-582-chair-paulin-pierre/
Peter Murdoch, 1965, Chair Thing [image online] Available at: http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O21619/chair-thing-chair-murdoch-peter/
Author Unknown, 2007, Folding 'Savanarola' Chair [image online] Available at: http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O138281/folding-savanorola-chair-unknown/
Charles Rennie Mackintosh, image date unknown, Sedia C. R. Mackintosh Alivar 814 [image online] Available at: http://www.ad-on-line-store.com/sedute/1345-sedia-c-r-mackintosh-alivar-814.html
Author Unknown, 2012, Chairigami [image online] Available at: http://www.coolthings.com/chairigami-cardboard-chairs/
Osian Batyka Williams, image date unknown, Cardboard Chair design [image online] Available at: http://www.theendearingdesigner.com/7-amazingly-creative-chair-designs
Author Unknown, 2011, Zig Zag Cardboard Chair [image online] Available at: http://www.instructables.com/id/Zig-Zag-Structure-Cardboard-Chair/