Geetashree Banerjee

FD4003-1

As per the assignment I was given the Grass Chair by George Nakashima to study and analyze. A simply supported chair made out of wood logically justifies the presence of each member in the chair. Extracting the principles in terms of structure and strength of the Grass Chair, another chair in metal had to be redesigned. As materials metal and wood have completely different properties where one being malleable but sturdy the other one being rigid. I decided to use metal box sections as one of my main elements in the design because of its already sturdy structure and the availability of a wide range of sizes in the market. Box sections give you the required amount of volume in lightest form as possible while retaining the strength of the material. Keeping in mind the weight of the material and the ease with which it can be manipulated, I shortlisted aluminium box sections. Aluminium is a lightweight metal, weighing almost one – third that of mild steel makes the chair much more user friendly. All the vertical and horizontal members of the chair are made of aluminium box sections, which act as the building pillars of the structure while the backrest is made up of 1mm thick M.S sheet folded and curved to the required dimensions without compromising on the strength. They are all a combination of different sizes, thicknesses arranged together to perform the basic function of allowing someone to sit. The principles of geometry are extracted from the Grass Chair. This chair can be easily opened up as well as put together whenever required.