Bungee Chair

Materiality Studies

The Story
In the attempt to “make an interesting chair”, I had to sit down and think about my interests in furniture and fabrication. Through most of School (until this point), there had always been heavily laid out program requirements and expectations. However, this project was the first time I could do anything I wanted in my education career. So I set out to make a chair that would challenge me.
1. The chair had to challenge my skills as a fabricator. Until this point, I had worked in the Schools fabrication shop for two years. The main focus of the fabrication shop is to help out students, and all of the students would use wood. I was very comfortable with most forms of woodworking and joinery. However, while the shop had tools for metalworking, it was bare-bones, and no one correctly knew how to use them. So I decided to challenge myself as a fabricator and learn how to weld.
2. To challenge my skills as a space-body designer. When designing a chair, you usually expect to think about the personal experience of sitting in a chair. I wanted to work out if there were any ways I could have the experience change with the chair when sitting in it.
3. To challenge my ideas about the traditional upholstery and frame relationship. For example, could I make a chair that had tension? Tension in the literal physics sense, but also visual tension and tension between materials.

The Chair
The Bungee Chair bounces. While the steel frame keeps the chair physically and visually grounded, the woven bungee chords bounce freely. The bungee chords pave the way to rethink how a body can be situated and move within rigid space. While most chairs depend on comfort based on height and body proportions, the Bungee Chair also considers weight. The more weight in the chair starts to increase comfort and provides a hug. Different sections of the chair support the body in various manners, depending on the weave and tension of the specific area.