A lounge chair that ships flat, forms on-site, and is maintained by hearing.

Materials that are grown naturally are renewable but require treatment to stabilize often with the use of energy. If the manufacturing process can incorporate untreated material, a large part of the carbon footprint for pre-production can be omitted. Can a design process embrace untreated material properties and make it part of the design? With this new old perspective, we may be guided to discover new aesthetic qualities.  

The chair changes the perspective of careless manufacturing and consumerism one step at a time. A designed object typically enters the world in its static, finished form, generally a form so rigid that a product doesn’t have room for adjustments. Design needs to introduce flexibility in an object’s life – the right to repair, restoration, and rejuvenation. From this flexibility comes resilience. It is an object that adjusts to its environment, constantly changing its dimensions. The form is more contingent rather than stringent, more Monk rather than Bach. With this flexibility, a well-thought-out object in a zero-carbon world gains the tenacity of persistence and lasts longer than human life. The new aesthetic of carbon zero needs a perspective with a twist.

Class Instructor: Sheila Kennedy

Fall 2022