People who live in smaller spaces can find it challenging to find room for furniture for themselves and for their pets. In addition to that, there are not many pieces of furniture that are versatile enough to be used for either people or animals. The Transforming Chair is a versatile piece of furniture that provides an elegant solution to this problem by morphing between two states: a papasan chair for humans and a dog bed for dogs.

The Transforming Chair was inspired by three primary precedents: a spiderwed, the Hoberman Sphere, and the Papasan Chair. The Hoberman sphere is a popular kids toy that expands to three times it's size and the Papasan Chair is a comfortable spherical chair. We began our process by examining different mechanisms for an expanding and contracting chair. 

Iteration One

Our first iteration began with an inner and outer ring that were connected with stretchy string. We've been inspired throughout this process by that design because it had an elegant look to it. However, because it was essentially just one ring suspended in air, it wasn't a plausible design. Therefore, we have used that idea and tried to create something that looked like that but actually worked. 

Iteration Two

Our second iteration is when we worked the design of the Hoberman Sphere into our chair. We used the ring of the Hoberman sphere as the outside of our chair and connect that to a stationary base. The initial connection pieces where two pieces of wood with a joint. These connection mechanisms didn't allow for the proper rotation of the sphere so we needed to create another kind of mechanism that accounted for that. We tried added three other joints to the connections but that still didn't account for the geometry of the ring.

Iteration Three

The third iteration included the rings of the Hoberman Sphere as our attachment mechanisms. We attached that all to a small stationary base. This was the closest interation we came to it acting like a chair. 

Iteration Four

In our fourth iteration we scaled our model up so that it came closer to the size of a chair. We also cut holes in our pieces so we could attach string throughout the model to simulate the seat of a chair. This model was pretty successful. However, we were not able to design rivets that were successful enough to create the legs of the chair.

Rivets

Throughout this process we went through eighteen iterations of rivets. These rivets were were we used as connecting joints for the Hoberman pieces. We encountered many issues with our rivets because they would expand when we printed out many of them at a time. Also, some were too weak. We also printed them on the Form II printer. This printer was good because it didn't allow any expansion. However, the resin material was too strong for a rivet.

Introduce the general context of your project
Present the thesis or design problem and how you approached the solution
Using precedents, begin to tell the story of the genesis of your actual design.
Describe the overall design concept.
Delve deeply into the heart of the design process through a description of major design iterations.
Thoroughly describe the final design technically and functionally through the reference to your diagrams.
Walk through the final images, discussing how everything came together.
Discuss the conceptual and technical challenges you faced. These should be broad view issues, not hyper-specific technical issues.
Your vision for where your project can go.

People who live in smaller spaces can find it challenging to find room for furniture for themselves and for their pets. In addition to that, there are not many pieces of furniture that are versatile enough to be used for either people or animals. The Transforming Chair is a versatile piece of furniture that provides an elegant solution to this problem by morphing between two states: a papasan chair for humans and a dog bed for dogs.

The Transforming Chair was inspired by a combination of the Hoberman Sphere and the Papasan Chair. The Hoberman Sphere is a toy ball that can expand to three times it's size and the Papasan chair is a comfortable bowl shaped chair. The Transforming chair expands and contracts using the mechanism popularized in the Hoberman’s Sphere. This  allows the chair to expand, from a small chair, for the pet, into a papasan chair, for the human. This also saves space in the homes of users, as the chair can be stored in the smaller phase.

The chair will be comprised of an outer expanding ring conntected to four expanding half rings that attach to a stationary base. When completely contracted a pillow can be placed on the contracted chair for a dog to sit on. When expanded it will be a Papasan chair for people to sit on. 

Slide 1:

- We designed the Donut; an outdoor seat for both dogs and humans.

Slide 2:

- This image captures the bond between human and dog

Slide 3:

- Our project is a piece of outdoor furniture that allows dogs and humans to interact comfortably.

- Humans can sit on the seat part of the structure while dogs have the option to either sit in the center, or crawl through the hollow insides of the structure to lay down and get shade

Slide 4:

- Here is a bench that was cut with a CNC machine and is installed at Harvard.

-  There is usually a design technique associated with making structures using a CNC Machine

- This technique usually involves stacking shaped layers that morph so that when all the layers are put together, the structure looks like one solid structure.

Slide 5:

-This is another bench made with a CNC machine, however to connect all of the layers, they used dowels.

Slide 6:

- Here is a rocking chair that captures the same aspect of human and dog interaction as ours.  

- This chair also seems to aim for comfort with both the human and the dog

Slide 7:

- Here was one of the early sketches that we had

- We thought that this looked too worm-like, however is did capture the idea of both nature, a tunnel, and the piece of human and dog interaction.

Slide 8:

-  Our coach recommended a smaller size donut shaped structure

- We started taking measurements and dimensioning,

-This was made by using the sweep2 command in Rhino and sweeping an arch along 2 curves.

- The only problem with this was that there was no seat for the human to sit on.

-This also was too closed in

Slide 9:

- After making many iterations using a loft command, while changing one element of the structure each time (i.e.. ellipse diameter, height, etc.), we decided on the fourth iteration because it was rather short, so it seemed to make nice open space to sit in.

- The opening to the center of the structure was also wide so that the structure could feel less closed

Slide 10:

- This is one of he ways we tried to make the seat for the project.

- We tried to loft the seat so that we could use the booleanDifference command to cut the seat out of the rest of the structure

- Using the loft command proved to create imperfections in the seat object that we would use to subtract from the larger structure

- We needed the structure and the lofted seat to line up perfectly.

Slide 11:

- This was how we thought we would make the structure stable

- We thought that we would have horizontal arches that notched into the vertical arches

Slide 12:

- This is the final iteration called "The Donut"

- Here, we made the seat by making the its curves part of the arches that became lofted to make the structure.  This way both the seat and the rest of the structure were made at the same time.

- One can also tell that we decided to cut the object into layers from bottom to top instead of having morphing arches around an ellipse.  The reason we did this was because the original method, when imported into the cutting software 123D Make, created too many errors, making it the original assembly method unachievable.

-There is also spacing between the layers below the seat so that the tunnel is less daunting and scary for the dog to go through or into.  The reason this helps is because it lets light into the space.

Slide 13:

- Here one can see that the components of the Donut are: humans sitting, gardens and nature, and human and dg interaction.

Slide 14:

- These are the uses of the Donut.

- As you can see there are many uses for the Donut some of which include plain sitting and resting, and some of which include a dog going into the tunnel of the Donut for shade.

Slide 15:

- Here is an assembly diagram showing how the pieces stack together

Slide 16:

- Here is a GIF, animating how the pieces stack together

Slide 17:

- Final picture

Slide 18:

- Final picture

Slide 19:

- Final Picture

    Our project is an interactive lawn chair for a dog and human called The Donut. The insides of this donut-shaped chair are hollow, allowing most dogs to run through in case he/she wants shade, or he/she can simply next to the human’s feet in the middle of The Donut. This chair brings dogs and humans together in an environment that is comfortable for both species.

    Average folding lawn chairs today are simple, and not dog friendly. Also, the lush grass underneath dies from a lack of sunlight. In contrast, The Donut was made to give a dog and human a sense of intimacy and companionship surrounded by the outdoors.  Due to the spaces between the layers in the bottom half of the chair, water and sunlight can seep softly and quietly into its interior.  This keeps dogs involved with the outdoors while maintaining shade under the shell of the chair.  With beautifully layered wood, and an in-built seat that blends with the rounded design of The Donut, this chair will be a beautiful piece of furniture for an outdoor space. By creating a comfortable outdoor space for both dogs and humans we help to make the bond between the two species stronger than it is already.

Our project is a interactive lawn chair for a human and a dog. This chair is hollow, so that the dog can run through in case he/she wants shade, or it can lay at the human’s feet.

Lawn chairs today are simple, and not very accommodating to a dog, wanting to relax and be with their owner. Also, the grass underneath dies from no water or sunlight. This chair was made to give the owner and their dog a sense of intimacy. Also, this chair was made to be outside, surrounded by colorful flowers and lush grass. Since it is hollow, and has cracks, water and sunlight can seep softly and quietly through. It is in addition aesthetically pleasing, with beautifully cut cmc wood, and a seat built in. This keeps the grass lush and pretty. 

    If your dog is hot, it can run underneath the shade of the hollow chair, so it can relax after being in the harsh sun for too long. Then, there is an open circle where your dog can lay by your feet, with you sitting comfortably above. Your dog can be under you on both sides, and run around you happily. This chair gives you a sense of togetherness with your animal, and at the same time accommodates your animal and you.

Hermit crabs will change shells when they grow too big or uncomfortable in them. Our project is a hermit crab shell that expands when the animal grows, so it is not needed to change shells as often, and the crab can have a more comfortable and personalized fit. This also helps solve the problem hermit crabs face of finding a new vacant shell in the wild.  

Hermit crabs will change shells when they grow too big or uncomfortable in them. Our project is a hermit crab shell that expands when the animal grows, so it is not needed to change shells as often, and the crab can have a more comfortable and personalized fit. This also helps solve the problem hermit crabs face of finding a new vacant shell in the wild.