Sapele Serenade
Project type
Industrial Design
Brief
Design and build an ergonomically considered chair that comfortably fits a range of body types.
Sapele Serenade is a hand-crafted lounge chair that combines ergonomic design and artisanal craftsmanship to create a luxurious and comfortable seating experience. Made from Sapele hardwood and hand-woven materials, this chair is perfect for relaxation, whether used indoors or outdoors.
Phase I : Research
Mood Board
I initially had the intention to create a brutalist-inspired chair for this project but was reminded of the weight constraint we had to hold to. I then found a mood, environment, and persona of where I envisioned my chair would be placed.
Phase I : Research
Inspiration Board
I knew from the beginning after my pivot that I was going to design a lounge chair. So I looked to see what was already out there and find details that called to me and what I thought worked and didn't work.
Phase II : Ideation
Early Exploration
My early sketches revolved around the brutalist direction I had. I enjoyed the form and flow of overhang chairs and tried pushing diferent designs.
Phase II : Ideation
Pivoting
I got feedback from my professors on my brutalist chair design and was directed to pivot the design. With my new direction of Spanish architecture lounge chair, I focused on trying to rediscover what the lounge chair can look like in a well saturated market.
Phase III : Prototyping
Concept Models
Phase III : Prototyping
Material Testing
I worked with two different materials a plastic rattan which had an elastic and cheap quality feel to the design. And a nylon weaved strap which felt durable, modern, and more in style for what I wanted for the design of the lounge chair weave.
Now that I had the material selected, there was the pattern of the weave that I would test with chipboard replicating the Nylon band. I found that having complex weaving took away from the craft of the wood and would complicate the form. Hence I stuck with a generic 1x1 weave structure.
Phase III : Prototyping
Full Scale Model
Each step of the prototyping phase got me closer and closer to the final model. The full scale cardboard model allowed me to feel how the chair would be in an environment. How the size and form was interpreted by the human eye as well as thinking how a human would interact with this dimension.
Phase IV : Revisions
3D Finalizing Measurements
After I completed the full scale model, I made final adjustments to the profile view of the legs, as well as thinning the support cross bars as they were a bit to thick.
Phase V : Finalizing
Manufacturing
After finalizing the drawings it was into our Design shop to build the chair by hand from a 10 ft piece of sapele hardwood. Here you can see the three stages from rough, to cleaned up, and the final stained and weaved piece. I used a mill to cut the inner slot along the sides for the nylon strap to slide through. And domino joints to hold all pieces of the frame together. A router was used to give a beautiful softness to the corners and edges around the whole chair. This tide into the soft edges found in some Spanish architecture forms.
