Alexandra's Candle Wax Chair
Project 1 Flat-pack Chair: Documentation
1. Inception
I initially wanted to create a chair, that despite the design being constrained by its flatpack construction, had some curves and depth. I was inspired by art deco and 80's era furniture with long smooth curves. Ultimately, I wanted the chair to look like it was melting. I began experimenting with curvy legs and a back that was open, to add to the "melting" aesthetic. Both characteristics were incorporated into the final design. I tried adding arm rests and more uniform and traditional chair legs but figured that it made the design too rigid and went against the fluidity I was attempting to convey in my design. In many of my designs it is shown that originally, I was going to add another piece onto the front (between the two front legs) but in CAD, decided it made the chair look too bulky.
2. Design Process
SKETCHING
I initially wanted to create a chair, that despite the design being constrained by its flatpack construction, had some curves and depth. More specifically, I wanted the chair to look like it was melting. I began experimenting with curvy legs and a back that was open, to add to the "melting" aesthetic. Both characteristics were incorporated into the final design. I tried adding arm rests and more uniform and traditional chair legs but figured that it made the design too rigid and went against the fluidity I was attempting to convey in my design. In many of my designs it is shown that originally, I was going to add another piece onto the front (between the two front legs) but in CAD, decided it made the chair look too bulky.
SKETCH 1 was the initial concept and the basics of which I kept throughout the project. This included curved legs, a back with a slight opening. The sketch was less about how things would fit together and more how they would look. I found the legs, at almost a 90 degree angle, too angular.
SKETCH 2: I wanted to see what the chair looked like with arm rests. I ultimately decided on excluding the idea of armrests completely, since having a set fixture with a flat surface like that went against my concept of each piece looking melted.
SKETCH 3: I experimented with the shape of the legs, making them straighter with an outward curve at the bottom. The rigidity of the straight lines clashed with the other curved components.
SKETCH 4: I went back to the first version of the design and added a front face, between the two front legs as well as incorporated the manufacturing into my design. Thus, I modified the front part of the leg to be flat so it could rest against the back piece. I further refined and accentuated the curves in the chair seat and back.
SKETCH 5: This represented further refinement in the curvature of certain compenents and my decision to angle the legs slightly outward, giving the illusion that the side of the chair was about to melt down onto the floor.
CAD MODELING AND FABRICATION
VERSION 1: I began with tracing a rough outline of how big I wanted the sketch to be. I researched online what were the average ranges for the dimensions of a dining room chair and sketched that, making sure to add several indents where the pieces would be joined to one another. Dimensions were as follows: height was around 950 mm, length from seat to bottom of legs (500 mm), depth of seat (410 mm), width of seat (580 mm). Then I began adding fit point splines along the sections which I intended to be curved which were mostly the back of the chair legs. I extruded the leg to a width of 15 mm. Then I created a backrest with a rectangle. I was unable to modify the backrest with splices, which I changed in later versions. I extruded the backrest, then created the seat out of rectangle, then extruded it. I copied the first leg to create the second leg, then cut the various bodies to create the intents and holds for the cardboard to join together. I wasn't able to print and test with the human model for sizing until after I printed Version 2 which is why the sizing is off for the first two versions.
VERSION 2: I followed a similar process to the previous version: tracing a rough outline of my sketch, then making the necessary adjustments with splices after. I extruded the leg to a width of 15 mm. Then I created a backrest with a rectangle. The major changes were to the backrest, which I was unable to modify the backrest with splices, which I changed in later versions. These curves are mirrored symmetrically across the y-axis. Additionally, I extended the backrest to be closer to the seat than I had in the previous model since I would have more space to cut out curves and I felt like the open space in the backrest resembled that of children's high chair. Like before, I then extruded the backrest, and formed seat out of rectangle. I added slight curves to the sides of the seat. I copied the first leg to create the second leg, then cut the various bodies to create the intents and holds for the cardboard to join together.
After testing both Version 1 and Version 2 with the scaled-down human cut out, I realized the leg length of the chairs (length from seat to bottom of leg) was too high. I then confirmed this theory when I tested out the ergonomics using my friend. She is 5 foot 7 inches, and only her toes could touch the ground. In the spirit of inclusivity and to average to short statured people everywhere, I decided to decrease the leg length from 500 mm to 420 mm.
VERSION 2.2: I adjusted the chair leg length to 420 mm so that an average sized person that is 167 cm tall can comfortably sit with their feet flat on the floor. To do this, I went back to my Version 2 sketch and modified the leg sketch to be 420 mm from the seat to the bottom of the leg. Then, I manually moved down the curve connecting the two legs. I cleaned up the lines on the top and bottom of the seat so that they looked smooth and continuous, not like two curves with an obvious indent where the intersect in the middle. I printed and realized that the adjustment in the legs had not translated to the end CAD model. In the end, I had a chair with a refined back but did not include the leg adjustments.
VERSION 3: This is my final version where I was able to print out my refined design with a shorter leg length. Due to problems with the CAD modelling, I combined the outlines from a previous version's DXF file for the seat and back, with the sketch of the leg with the length of 420 mm. Below is the modified leg sketch and a rendering of the final model.
3. CAD and CNC Fabrication
Each version was modeled by card board, with the final version, Version 3, being cut on plywood. This was considered in the CAD design, with each sketch being extruded 15 mm for the thickness of the cardboard and plywood. From CAD in Fusion 360, each version was translated via DXF file and then laser cutted. Since each model was scaled down 1:5, the thickness was 3 mm.
V1:
V2.2:
V3:
Link to design: https://a360.co/4c9XAby
