INDN 342: Constructional!

One of the things I have to consider in my design is how the whole thing works. Fortunately for me, the way I design things and consider options is always from a rather critical "will this even work" stance, which ensures that the designs I come up with have a tendency to be relatively solid in terms of construction and how they fit together. The bad side of that is of course that sometimes my creativity ends up being a bit stifled because I can shut down ideas before they have a chance to come to fruition.

The construction drawings for this stool were really fun to generate, and I love the way that line drawings like this look. They're almost a kind of ethereal drawing, revealing hidden secrets about the design. In this instance, the area I decided to focus on for the detail was the way that the legs of the stool are connected to the actual seat construct of the seat.

Another consideration I have to make that transcends my ability to imagine how it could quite work is the way that the forces interact on the stool. As such it needs to be broken down into it's constituent parts in order to fully understand how the forces act on each other. A loading force is applied to the stool from above, which then is spread down through the legs via rigid joints where the wooden legs are encased in metal collars. These steel collars will be welded to the stool seat, creating a really strong bond. Ideally however, the collars shouldn't experience too much force laterally in a bending direction because the legs aren't bent outwards too much. As a result, the force on the legs should be primarily in compression, not too much shear or bending.

INDN 342: A Return To Older Forms

After experimenting with the flowing metal ribbon leg idea, I decided to move away from it back to some of the aspects of one of my original designs. One of the reasons was that the flowing metal leg would have made the stool extremely heavy. I calculated that each stool would have weighed roughly a back-straining 23kg. That's way too heavy for a stool that would only be about 450mm high and 350mm along one of the rhombus' sides.

Another rationale for the form change was in order to give the stools the character that I spoke of previously. Somehow having the flowing metal "leg" meant that the character of the stool was kind of lost. The herding nature of the stools was still kind of inherent, but it definitely didn't feel as obvious. The little slot in the metal actually makes the stools feel more animal-like, especially when we consider the way in which certain herd animals interact with each other.

The way elephants hold each other's tails when they're on the move, and the way in which water buffalo congregate in close groups, both examples of the interaction that I'm trying to capture in this piece of furniture. When the furniture is finished (I want to make 3 stools), each stool will be able to connect to another stool in three different ways. Each stool will be identical in form, yet designed in a way to allow multiple modes of connection with copies of itself.

The uses of the stools are designed to be multi-faceted, both in terms of implied uses through the way the stools are aligned, but also in their inherent form. Their use could easily be as side tables individually, as well as a long bench when placed consecutively, or alternatively they could see use as a collected coffee table that could be split apart to provide multiple seating or small table options. There are many configurations possible.

INDN 312: Presentation Slides

INDN 342: Render Development

After playing around with the design in the sketch process, I moved into modelling my design in 3D. The modelling process allows me to explore another dimension in a very quick and aesthetic way. This is really good, especially because I can then very easily iterate on the design further and further.

This is the first iteration of the design post-sketching. Note that the design has the fourth leg coming through the sheet metal. This started out this way in order to improve stability of the overall design, but I realised late that it wasn't very necessary. Another aspect of the design that I ended up considering more and putting some more time into was the legs of the stool.

The legs of the stool are ultimately and actually one of the most important features of the stool design. The legs allow the stools to interlock with each other, and become more than just a stool. The nature of the stools should allow for lots of different configurations, and that's really the interesting aspect about the stools that makes me like them.

One of the ideas about the stools that's come through recently is the way the stools feels very animal-like. One of the concepts for their quirkiness is to make them "Herd animals" and play on that idea a bit to get some more character into the designs. In many respects, the design of the stools reflects the way elephants and water buffalo interact with each other when they congregate or when they are on the move.

The aforementioned animals often hold onto each others tails when they are on the move or when they just want to be close to each other. The concept that I'm really trying to nail with my designs is the potential for a piece of furniture to be something a little bit more living and have a bit of character and a kind of "cuteness" to them. This way the chairs could see multiple iterations and multiple uses, encouraging users to experiment and play with the configurations that the stools can be in.

The full metal legged stools toy with the concept of having a single flowing "ribbon" of metal, as opposed to a potentially top-heavy design that might possibly not make a flowing contiguous connection to the ground it sits on. The design above looked at how an angle could possibly make the flow of the of the stool design a bit different.

This design looked at creating a another section of usable space, enabling the user to really utilise the spaces created in more obvious ways. This one could be a really cool design, however after considering the design a little bit, I realised that the design might allow the metal side to act as a spring, making it flex and bend a little more than it should really be allowed to do.