In_Flight
In-Flight is a lounge chair that aims to express the culture and design Scandinavia.
It is designed and made in Copenhagen, Denmark where I studied abroad for the summer.
Research:
Learned about Scandinavian designers and Scandinavian design principles: simplicity (no ornamentation), show beauty through form, joinery, and material, be true to materials, and learn from predcedents.
Study tour: Stockholm and Helsinki
We visited design shops, craftsmans, museums, and design companies such as IKEA.
Design Restraints:
Size 80cm X 80cm X 80cm
Material = Solid wood
Scandinavian design principles
Ideation:
The Danish lifestyle of valuing the time to relaxing and hanging out with friends and family inspired me to make an lounge chair.
The lightness and upward movement viking ships inspired me because its form allow a sturdy, wide base, and heavy ship looks like it can fly out of the water which is what I want my lounge chair to look and feel like there is no burden and it is ready to take off.
Inspiration in Design:
The incorporation of natural lighting and using positive and negative space to lighten up the architecture inspired me to apply the principle to my lounge chair.
Inspiration for Details and Construction:
The construction of Fin Juhl's Chief Chair allows the connections to disappear and makes the surfaces seem like they are floating in air. As a result, I decided to use similar construction method to make my lounge chair look airy.
Model 1
Form Exploration:
Movement
Lightness (weaving)
Model 2
Construction exploration:
Strength
Use of material
Model 3
Form exploration + Construction considerations:
All solid wood
Lightness through the gaps in between panels
Movement through the narrowing angles
Imitating viking ship construction
Making:
From life size drawing to cutting to finishing was done in 2 weeks.
The first picture is the Fin Juhl inspired cross-bars. The key element is the concave top corners which give an illusion that the seating and back surfaces are floating.
Results:
The chair seems very angular especially the angled seating and back surface but it is actually calculated and protyped multiple times to make sure it is actually comfortable to seat on for a long time. Based on all the feedback, everyone who have sat on it was really satisfied with the experience.