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Be4U - Furniture Design History

NGV Visit - Paul Kjaerholm

Esquisse 4: Take a seat

We had an initial idea for our seat that we came up with in class time. We were working with a hexagon shape with triangulation inside to secure it. Working out how we were going to produce the triangles and at what size proved difficult and took many tries when cutting them out. After hunting around for cardboard big enough as we needed 1.260m to be able to draw our design on we started making small folds and models in thinner card. We also set ourselves a brief of the stool being 420mm high and have some sort of combined backrest/table. This was not planned until we were physically building it as what we could experiment with on paper was limited. We made lots of tiny paper folds and then a half scale mock up and hoped it would work! In the end it turned out very sturdy and had a ledge that acted as a table.

Esquisse 3: locking systems

Finding my folding technique took a while as I practised a lot with paper and really should have just got into it with the cardboard. I first started by seeing how much material I had to work with, and in those 3 long strips I started folding it into a square and then a triangle. I found a triangle to be stronger as it had an extra flap which could also be used as a holding/folding technique. Once I had the basic shape and structure I played around with what could slot into the triangle, and made a 1:50 model to test it out. After many folds and cuts I found that 4 interlocking triangles worked best. They held themselve in place by being cut the right size, and prooved pretty strong. The locking/folding method was a little loose at the base but still stood upright when stood on.

Esquisse 2: Understanding form

The pyramid was a challenge! I initally wanted to have a template which didn't involve the square being in the middle, this way I could then join it at only one side. So I came up with some locking systems which involved cutting into the triangles and different angles, over and over again. This was very time consuming and looked very messy. Then I tried cutting holes towards the base of the triangle near the square and attached pieces of Xanita through the middle of the pyramid. This idea worked but didnt hold the pyramid together too well at the top, so then I moved the inter connection system upwards on the pyramid as to connect at more holes in the middle of the pyramid. After several attempts to get the correct size mini pyramid I attached it into the bigger pyramid and it held together atlast! This has definately been the most challenging exercise so far and I still need to perfect my 45 degree angle cut.