The project was done in collaboration with Wonderland Beds who wanted to expand their product assortment. They have high demands for efficiency in production, transportation, and quality as they are manufacturing in Norway.
Shape, expression, and aesthetics:
The shape of the stool highlights the solid wood as material through oblique angles and rounded corners. Doing this makes the grains in the end wood show its unique characteristics that is rare to see in “fake” wood. The shape is also hiding some of the unequalness the living material can develop in different environments through rounded off edges in meeting points and notches. The proportions give the stool a light, yet stabile expression, resulting in an overall balanced addition to a room.
Construction:
The stool consists of 8 pieces. The legs and connection pieces are pre-assembled in the factories, while sliding the joined legs into each side of the top plate is done by the consumer. The drawing illustrates how the parts are connected, however, after having tested a prototype for 8 months, the wedges going into the top of each leg proves to be unnecessary.
After many months of testing, the birch has twisted and moved, resulting in the end of the sliding leg pieces to stick out past the top plate pieces. To compensate for this, I made iterations on the sliding connection pieces by making them shorter, as shown in the renderings. This will allow for movement in the wood without being very visible.
Effect:
By being able to flat pack furniture in solid wood without secondary materials, manufacturers will be able to offer quality furniture in real material at a lower price. Solid wood furniture is often assembled before shipping, or flat packed and assembled by the user using screws or plastic parts. When you can now flat pack a piece of furniture without secondary materials, the manufacturer will be able to cut a production link in the production chain (assembly) and save money on transport, while at the same time delivering a mono material product of quality with the correct certifications.
By being able to use Norwegian solid wood in Norwegian mass production, it will be possible to bring in processing of material from abroad, which reduces additional transport stresses and costs. In addition, it will secure Norwegian jobs and employment. As the product only consists of solid wood, the product itself (i.e. apart from stresses from production) will not be harmful if it were to end up in nature. It is also hard to sort and recycle incorrectly when recycling after the end of life.
Process:
To me, it was really fun to be working on a project like this, where I had high ambitions and had to test different solutions through physical modeling. It really adds value to me personally when the project comes to live outside of the computer screen.
I did a lot of 1:1 mockups in solid wood to test the mechanisms, making iterations throughout the entire modeling phase. I spent a lot of time in the workshop doing some rapid prototyping, mockups and finally a prototype. The prototype is in Birch and learned that there might be a problem in the wood twisting and bending before the costumer has the chance to put it together. This could be solved by choosing a different material or to create room for movement.
Material:
Solid wood is an easily accessible material that radiates quality, and can be harvested relatively sustainably, making this a suitable material for the stool and Wonderland. There are also long traditions with using wood, and during my research phase I looked at old joining techniques in Viking shipbuilding and Japanese housebuilding traditions. In a book by P. N. Hasluck (1907) I found joining techniques with potential that I iterated and tested different versions of to find the perfect fit for this product.
