Chair Design

We, as humans, like to sit. We sit for different reasons. Sometimes we sit to rest and get off our feet. Sometimes we sit to do a task. Sometimes we sit to socialize. For this activity, design a chair that is fun to sit in! Search around your classroom and at home for pieces of unused material. Look for anything unusual: small scraps of wood, cloth, paper, wire, leather or even plastic! Think about how you can stitch these materials into the form of a chair or a new way of sitting. How can the materials inform how the chair looks? How will they influence how the chair feels to the touch? How can they inform the form of the chair? How can your materials encourage a new way of sitting. Take a look at Take a Seat, Make A Friend to rethink sitting as a social event.

In public spaces, seating is important. A place to sit is a welcome sight when you have been on a long walk or are waiting to meet someone, especially for the elderly or small children. Sketch your design for a pedestrian chair or build a small model. What kind of location is your chair for? Consider parks, bus stops, or other places people may be waiting. Is it permanent or movable? Is it inexpensive so that it can be installed in many locations across town? How many people does it seat? Be sure to consider the material, as it will be outside in all kinds of weather.

Chairs come in many different shapes and sizes. Design three chairs: one for a child, one for a middle-aged adult, and one for an elderly person. Consider ergonomics in your design. How does the shape and size of a person’s body affect how a chair feels and fits?

Photograph or find images of three good chair designs and three bad chair designs. Describe why you selected these chairs and why you feel they are good or bad designs. In your description, note what you think the chair designer had in mind when designing. Was the designer considering cost to be the most important? Aesthetics? Material? Function?

You have had the opportunity to sit in a lot of chairs, you have looked at chair history and have modeled chairs. Now try your hand at digitally modeling a chair. Watch a SketchUp Chair Demo and then open SketchUp on your computer and follow along. Once you have copied the construction of the Sketch Up chair, experiment with modeling your own. Remember though, that all chairs digitally modeled, still need to be built, prototyped and tested during the design process!

Ask your teacher to provide you with sheets of cardboard. Make a team of at least two students. Give yourself some time to brainstorm how you can use cardboard to create a chair that he or she can sit it. You can use cardboard and glue, a mat knife and cutting boards to make your chair. Be sure to think about strength, structure, function, and fun! You can make small models first to study how they will support weight. Think about brainstorming ideas, conceptualizing how to build it, cutting the pieces, and then putting it together in 3 hours or less!
Don’t forget to test it several times!

Some chairs move back and forth when you are sitting in them. These are called rocking chairs or gliders. Rocking in a chair is comforting to many, especially parents holding a baby. Rocking is a nice way to sit in a chair but still be moving. Design a rocking chair that rocks!

Some chairs are adjustable so that a person can lie down. These chairs are called recliners or sometimes chaise loungers. They are popular on the beach, on a sunporch or poolside. Design an adjustable recliner and relax and take a nap!

• If you consider how the human body occupies a chair you design, you are considering:
  • Aesthetics
  • Cost
  • Ergonomics
  • All of the above
• Chair designers always follow the rule "form follows function".
  • true
  • false
• Chairs in the future will change because:
  • Technology changes
  • Society changes
  • Style changes
  • All of the above
• Chairs are:
  • Unique
  • Common
  • Both
• When designing a chair, it is most important to:
  • Consider the cost of the chair
  • Consider the material quality of the chair
  • Consider the sculptural quality of the chair
  • Consider what is important for each design individually