I made a bent lamination chair, where the pieces a unique curve to result in a most comfortable and ergonomic chair. It is made up of 10 wood pieces and 3 metal fixtures.
It can be fully disassembled if needed, for ease of transporting, or replacing of parts.
The bolt-hardware connection allowed for much of the learning flexibility of this project. In addition to the benefit of the user, I followed this process so that I could remake any of the parts that needed iteration, and change things as I went. I wanted this project to not be a means to a "final" prototype but a journey where I would learn things about mid-century style making and improve my design.
The two large back pieces are connected with a "wishbone" style steel connector. The two bottom legs, which hold a lot of stress, were also reinforced with steel plates, to make the chair highly durable for stress.
inspiration
Every day, I doodle a lot of things. One of my favorites- to also warm up my sketching left hand, is this sort of composition of curves and lines. I have pages and pages of these lines on my desk, at all times.
It was only an after thought, but I did realize that there was a similarity between curves in my doodles and the lounge chair. Of course, the specific curvature in the chair, did not come from random doodles: all measurements were based on "Human Factors in Design" by Henry Dreyfuss, which is a pioneering study for designing ergonomically, for human measurements and data.
Image showing my initial, rough sketches and quick ideation process. Working on these thumbnail sketches, I passionately wanted to make a chair with a lot of curves: a design that is industrially applicable and efficient, yet organic and human in its curves.
The orthographic drawing on the left, demonstrates the carefully selected angles for an ergonomic lounge chair, referencing Dreyfuss' studies.
process
Following my phase of concept development, I began extensively planning out my process using CAD, where I created templates for the bending plywood to be laser cut into the exact geometry I desired.
Each piece was cut as a unique shape that accounted for the loss of material due to the bending radius. Planning for this kind of offset and tolerance in mind, I was able to get pieces that lined up perfectly in the holes that I would use as my bolt connections.
Image showing the laser cutting process of the pieces.
Two images above demonstrate how the wood was bent. Each piece consists of 6 pieces: 4 layers of 1/8inch bending plywood, and two layers of veneer on the inside and outside. The pieces were layered with glue, registered on the molds/jigs that I made, and slumped using a vacuum table. After the glue dries, the curve is set and the pieces are strong.
Here is the making process of the jigs. Some were made out of pink foam, others out of MDF and plywood. I cut the profiles of the jig on a wood CNC, allowing me to stack them up until they were wide enough to create support for my wood pieces.