Santa Maria chair
1. Project
Santa Maria chair
2. Defined
users
People whose age is range from 18-40 years old. (Especially
the young people) they
are expected to be especially the young people, who have material live and lack
autonomous and creative thinking. They will be the people who always have a
busy life that they don’t want and have no time to think about other things.
3. Ideas
3.1
design for postmodernism
According to Memphis studio, they ran counter
to the accepted tenets of design and culture. They got a different vision to
see the design process, which meant they got inspiration from either futuristic
themes or past decorative style. Sottsass said that ‘postmodernism drew
inspiration from architecture and fine art rather than from functionalism and
consumerism.’ It made reference to both the ancient Egyptian capital of culture
and the Tennessee birthplace of Elvis Presley. Santa Maria chair will take the
postmodern idea of Memphis and get inspiration from the first Architecture
representing the Renaissance in Florence and use the elements of that
architecture as a double-coded language. But it will use the new materials and
hi-tech.
3.2
design for connotations
Using the simple principle of Memphis: ‘the
world is perceived through the senses.’ Getting inspiration from Florence
Cathedral (Santa Maria del Fiore) to make communication with users. Through
using the elements of it such as arched doors and appearance of the dome to
make people connect it in the mind. Stimulating users to taste it, communicate
it and consume it. The Florence Cathedral-------the first architecture
represented the Renaissance to show the meaning of people first, creative
thinking and new technology. This chair aims to make people rethink the quick
developing of technology and the meaning connection between manufacture and
lives.
3.3
design for comfort
This chair will finally be an easy chair. It
will have a high-level backrest and it will collect the data strictly according
to the science, ergonomics and anthropometry to seek the best angle for users
to sit, read and even sleep. Meanwhile, it will use soft material covering the
surface to make it as comfortable as possible.
3.4
design for sustainability
New strong and long-lasting fabric and other
‘green’ materials will be used to make this chair.
3.5
design for color
This part first will definitely follow the
modern rhythm such as Minimalism, different options and etc. At the same time,
Cathedral’s color will be used to draw people’s attention. Stimulating users’
sense to make them have the desire to try and consume.
4. Research
4.1Memphis studio
It was born in the winter 1980-81 when a group of Milanese architects
and designers felt an urgent need to reinvent an approach to design, to plan
other spaces, to foresee other environments, to imagine other lives.
Decorated plastic laminates. Different materials provides not only new
structural possibilities, but also new semantic and metaphoric possibilities.
‘Surfaces decorated with patterns of the designer’s own invention.’ Emilio
Ambasz: ’forever young, eternally vibrant’.
Materials: developing and using ’aseptic’
Decoration: decoration played the important role within the design.
‘What we believe holds this story of accidents together and gives it meaning,
is that every accident has a formal, decorative identity. Structure and
decoration are one thing.’ Sottsass said. The tendency is that design is
consist of a sum of parts. Memphis furniture is built by decoration.
Color: before Memphis, there was no color in furniture. European
furniture, on the whole, is made of ‘matter’. Mother-of-pearl, ivory, bronze
inlays, marble intarsia. Color is one of active ingredients of complex messages
transmitted by the furniture. Color in Memphis is never ’added’. It is born
with the design. No dominant or background colors in Memphis. It is devoid of
cultural references. It is hard, disjointed, shrill, totally toneless and free
of chromatic laxity. It is soft, sweet and sensual, full of joy and drenched
with flavor. (‘comic-strip color’ De Lucchi, Bedin) (Artificial raspberry syrup
color Peter Shire) (Washed out, cheap gouache color Zanini) (Ridiculous color Sottsass)
(Naïve color Sowden) (Third-world color du Pasquier). Memphis follows no fixed
pattern or rigid guideline. The forms have become less ramshackle, less
redundant, and simpler, with sharper, more self-assured, crystalline contours.
Basic idea: shake off the conditioned routine and recover fresh energy,
to follow the logic of the moment, to look at things always from new points of
view, and examine every new possibility.
The Memphis idea: anti-ideological: seek possibilities, not solutions.
Breaking ground, extending the field of action, broadening awareness, shaking
things up, discussing conditions, setting up fresh opportunities.it proposes
design as a vehicle for direct communication. It attempts to improve the
potential of its semantic dynamics as well as to update its contents. Open and
flexible design culture.
They adhere to a very simple principle: the world is perceived through
the senses. Due to this attitude comes an idea of design increasingly open to
change and increasingly attentive and dedicated to the physical consumption of
space, to material, tactile qualities, smells, sounds, colors, spatial
tensions, air conditioning, and so on. Having the desire to taste it, consume
it, communicate it physically. (P143 De Lucchi’s saying) communicating through
design means thinking of design as a semantic event, charging an object with
information, making it a metaphor, designing it as an active presence rather
than a dull, opaque support for functions.
Memphis tried to look at function with open eyes and ears, more like an
anthropologist or a sociologist than an engineer or a marketing man.
Memphis’s greatest merit is the wealth of new energy it has thrown on
the scales opposite the tired but heavy values of official design, tradition,
and history.
“Design for me is a way of discussing life, sociality, politics, food,
and even design.” ----------Sottsass.
Memphis design is permissive. It expresses sets of relations. It is
based on how we ‘experiment’ them. It uses metaphor to experience.
The Memphis style is broadening the area of style itself, it is
unsatisfied with what has already been done, and it is looking for a new style
all the time. Sowden said.
Memphis and fashion
Memphis works for contemporary culture, it designs for consumption.
Their brand of communication consists in presenting an object that is
attractive by advantages of its elusive, evanescent, consumable, perversely
’useless’ and desirable qualities.
4.2Memphis furniture
Memphis created furniture that ran counter to the accepted
tenets of design and culture. Drawing inspiration from either futuristic themes
or past decorative style.
Sottsass's interest in pop culture was highly instrumental
in his designs and he believed that anti-design should be popularized and made
more accessible.
Casablanca and Carlton room dividers, employ
zoomorphically inspired forms and colorful plastic laminates and were
intentionally decadent pieces, which mocked the Modern Movement's canons of
'good taste'. This furniture was anti-functional through its use of decoration,
quirkiness of form and towering scale.
It makes reference to both the ancient Egyptian capital of
culture and the Tennessee birthplace of Elvis Presley.
Sottsass’s said that Post modernism drew inspiration from
architecture and fine art rather than from functionalism and consumerism.
Memphis, on the other hand, concentrates
almost exclusively on the chair’s appearance. Its chairs carry a multiplicity
of symbolic connotations. While not always comfortable, the chairs are often
thought-provoking. These chairs make us question what we are doing even as we
sit in them.
Born in Forrara, Italy, graduated in
Florence, arrived in Milan in 1977.
He said “the furniture I designed
represented an attempt to get out of or rather an attempt to get back into the
center of the problem. Carrying forward everything that had failed to happen.”
He wanted to create a new expressive language, cutting free from the
functionalist matrix and also the radical esthetic that had earlier sought to
smash that tradition. The pieces that he designed for Memphis were to create
plastic representing directly perceptible to the senses.
“First chair” was made of metal and wood
with a structure that was visually very light plus three minimal elements that
merely gestured towards the back and armrests.
4.4 Florence
Cathedral (Santa Maria del Fiore)
It was designed by Filippo Brunelleschi, who
was born in 1377 and died in 1446. It was nearly 140 feet across and about 180
feet above the ground, and it was built by a wooden framework to support a
dome. In that period, it looked like impossible. But the people’s creative
thinking and developing technology made it come true.
It represented the start of the Renaissance. The
dome was a bold attempt. Using wooden framework held the dome.
The elements: column, arched door, the dome
The idea: bold creating, ignoring the opposition
of church to build the dome.
Renaissance
Starting from probably 14-17century. The
ideas of the Renaissance were people first, against stupidity, advocate science
and technology. It had strong effect on many domains, especially in art and
architecture.
4.5
Ergonomic and Anthropometry
The depth of seat and, support of
lumbar and the smooth upholstery are the major anthropometric important
factors. An appropriate match between the dimensions of the seat and those of
it users is necessary for comfort, but not for sufficient.
Methods to seat comfortable:
A semi-reclined sitting position (to the extent this is permitted by
the demands of the working task.), so that the hip angle is greater than 90 degree
and some of the upper body weight can be supported by the backrest.
A seat that is neither deeper nor lower than necessary.
A backrest that makes an obtuse angle to the seat surface and is
contoured to the users’ lumbar spine.
Seat height:
As the height of the seat increases, pressure will be felt on the
undersides of the thighs. The lower seat may lead to ‘pins and needles’,
swollen feet and considerable discomfort. As the height of the seat decreases,
the users will flex the spine more, experience greater problem in standing up
and sitting down and require greater leg room. The 5th 5%ile female
popliteal height (380mm-400mm) represents the best compromise.
Seat depth:
If the depth is increasing beyond the buttock-popliteal length (which
for 5th 5%ile female is 435mm), the user will not be able to engage
the backrest effectively without unexpected pressure. The deeper of the seat,
the greater problem of standing up and sitting down. So as little as 300mm will
support the users’ ischial tuberosities.
Backrest dimension
If it is an easy chair, the backrest need to be a high-level backrest,
and for the 95th %ile male, an overall backrest height of 900mm is
required.
Seat width
For the purpose of support, a width that is some 25mm less or either
side than the maximum breadth of the hips is all that is required.---- hence
385mm will be adequate. But considering the clothing and armrest. A minimum
clearance 500mm is required. Coleman et al. (1998) recommend a range of
adjustment between 150-250mm from the compressed seat surface. And Goossens et
al. recommend that scapular support should be a minimum of 6cm to the rear of
the lumbar support.
Backrest angle(α) and seat angle(β)
Grandjean (1973) recommends a seat tilt (β) of 20 degree to 26 degree for an easy chair
and an angle between seat and backrest of 105 degree to 110 degree. This gives
a back rake (α) of as much as 136 degree. As an easy chair, Le Carpentier (1969)
found a tilt of 10 degree with a rake of 120 degree to be suitable for both
reading and watching television.
Armrest
Armrest may give additional postural support and be an aid to standing up
and sitting down. An elbow rest 200 to 250mm above the seat surface is
generally considered suitable. The length of the 200mm is minimum. And there
need a gap of perhaps 100mm between the armrest and the seat back.
5. Brief
5.1 introduction
The “Santa Maria chair” is made of
plywood and polylactide fiber upholstery. Both of materials can be renewed and
recycling, and it takes less time and energy to manufacture. So it will be a
sustainable chair. This chair will connect new technology and past decorative
style, which will get inspiration from Florence Cathedral (Santa Maria del
Fiore), and will use the elements of that architecture to be the appearance of
the chair. It aims to stimulate people’s perception to think and have a desire
to taste it, consume it and communicate it. But part of this chair will use the
new material to replace the normal material, to make it more ecologic. This
chair will be an easy chair. Strictly referring to ergonomic and anthropometry
data to build a comfortable chair.
5.2 Users’ need
Doing the interview to users and
collecting information from them.
Analyzing users’ need, separating
them to primary needs, secondary needs and tertiary needs. According to the interview:
Primary:
Soft things covering such as leather and
fabric
Function is majority (comfortable, etc.)
No more than two colors
Fixing easily
Secondary:
Meaningful chair
Wood
Appearance and decoration
Tertiary:
Steel
Using pairwise comparison method
to find the most important needs of the users.
5.3
product design specification
Product: Santa Maria chair
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Date: 5/12/2013
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Designer: Felix Cao
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1.function
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1. Easy chair, adopting the ergonomic and
anthropometry data
2. Adopting the warm materials and fiber to
make users comfortable
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2.environment
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1. resistant to any weather conditions
2. it should be easy to clean and wash
3. resistant to the fire
4. better to keep dry
5. easy to keep thermal
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3. span
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It will be endurable and using as long as
possible
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4.quantity
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Long production run will be expected
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5.size
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Length:974mm
Breath:508mm (without the armrest)
Height:1320mm
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6.weight
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Should be light
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7.materials
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1.plywood 2.PLA fiber
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8.customers
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Young people aged from 18-40 years old
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9.processes
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Having no limitations to the manufacturing
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10.color
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1.the color should be adopt the color of
Florence Cathedral
2.the color should on the basis of users’
need
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11.disposal
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The components of the chair should be easy
to disassembly and recycling.
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6. Concept design
6.1 materials
The first material will be molded plywood.
According to wood properties:
Light and parallel to the grain
Stiff, strong and tough
Being molded to complex shapes
Aesthetically pleasing. Warm both in color
and feel
Plywood:
It is made by bonding together several layers
of thin wood slices, commonly referred to as veneers, plies, or sometimes
laminates.
Veneer plywood is defined as a panel of
balanced construction made up of wood veneers assembled by gluing, the chief
characteristic being the crossing of alternate plies to give improved strength
and stability properties to the resultant product.
Veneer thickness is 3mm-27mm. panels are
0.4mm-50mm.
Molded plywood is produced in three ways by
using:
Male and female forms into which the veneers
are placed and bonded under pressure, usually by high frequency electrical
heating.
A vacuum process in which a male form only
and a rubber bag or sheet is required.
By specially constructed shaping or molding
presses or pressure cylinders whereby fluid pressure is exerted together with
heat.
Properties of plywood:
Response to
moisture
Thermal
insulation
Fire performance
A new sustainable renewable resource polymer
fiber,
which is now a generic description for synthetic fibers made from annually
renewable resources.
PLA can be made from the sugars of many
plants, the selection was cornstarch, which is made of carbon dioxide and
water.
PLA represents an optimal combination of
agricultural processes and biological and chemical technologies, while using up to 50% less energy in its manufacturing.
The materials used will decide the forms of
the chair.
6.2 inspiration
Memphis studio
Part of their idea is drawing
inspiration from either futuristic themes or past decorative style. They are
make reference to both the ancient Egyptian capital of culture and the
Tennessee birthplace of Elvis Presley. This chair also will represent the
perceptible to the senses. Paying attention to the decoration of the chair and
make it postmodern.
Florence Cathedral
Getting inspiration from the Florence
Cathedral------the first architecture representing the Renaissance. Using the
elements of:
The dome: a bold attempt. Using wooden framework held the dome.
(Creative thinking and advocate science and technology)
The arched door and color: making connection to users’ sense and
stimulating people to taste it, communicate it, consume it.
The whole architecture: making the chair postmodern and rethink the
connotation.
6.3 brain storming
Form, Florence Cathedral, dome,
arched, Renaissance, meaning, appearance, Memphis
Material, eco, soft, light,
plastic, plywood, padding, fabric, durability, long-lasting
Function, easy chair, depth,
height, ventilate, hole, dimensions, soft edge, high-level backrest
Color, simple
6.4 ergonomic design
Understanding people body
structure and the backrest need to counter to people’s lumbar spine.Meanwhile,
the lines show that the suitable lumbar support will effectively decrease the
spine loading.
According to the data, deciding the depth, breadth and height of the
seat, the height and breadth of the
armrest, the height and the curve of the backrest
and the angle of the title and rake.
6.5 chair’s
concept drawing
People can also have the option to choose the colors of the
upholstery. It can give people more choice to
choose which one their favorite
chair are.
7. Conclusion
The initial concept of
the “Santa Maria chair” has been finished. This chair connoted the meaning of
Renaissance and the architecture Florence Cathedral. It will use plywood and
PLA fiber to put into manufacturing. Because of the time limit, the method to connect the
components will be discussed in the future.
(Such as the connection between plywood fame and PLA fiber upholstery). And the
sample of the PLA fiber will be researched more from the Ingeo Company.
Reference:
1. Barbara. R. (1985). Memphis:
Research, Experiences, Results, Failures and Successes of New Design. Milan:
Gruppo Editoriale Electa.
2. Charlotte and Peter. F. (1991). Modern
Furniture Classics: Postwar to post-modernism. London, United Kingdom:
Thames and Hudson Ltd.
3. Florence Cathedral: Duomo - Santa
Maria del Fiore. (2013). Retrieved 11/15/2013. From: http://www.rentalsapart.com/blog/post/64/Florence-Cathedral%3A-Duomo---Santa-Maria-del-Fiore
4. Karla. J. N. (2007).Interior
textiles: fabrics, applications, & historical styles. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley
5. Mike. A. and Kara. J. (2002). Materials
and Design: The Art and Science of Material Selection in Product Design.
Publisher: Elsevier Ltd.
6. Peter. M. (1963). The Architecture
of the Italian Renaissance. London, United Kingdom: Thames and Hudson Ltd.
7. Richard. H. (1985). Memphis:
Objects, Furniture, and Patterns. Philadelphia, Pa: Running Press.
8. Stephen. P. and Haslegrave. C. M.
(2006). Body space: anthropometry, ergonomics and the design of work.
Boca Raton, Fla, London: Taylor & Francis
9. Stephen. P. (1986). Body space:
anthropometry, ergonomics and the design of work. London: Taylor &
Francis
10. Timber Research and Development
Association. (1972). Plywood: its manufacture and uses. High Wycombe:
Timber Research and Development Association.
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