Forest Couch is a nature themed installation meant to facilitate play between children and adults. Forest couch is a large hexagonal play area with removable pillows and flower themed upholstery. The interior of the couch is a space for a kid to spend time alone and facilitate solitary play. The exterior is for a parent to sit and play with their child.

Project Statement

Precedents

Moss Formations

Terra Arm Chair

-Studio Nucleo



Hexagonal Ottoman

-Frank Lloyd Wright

Sketch Exploration

Sketch Exploration

Prototype One

For the first prototype we made one of our original ideas which was a chair that could swing.

Prototype Two

For the second prototype we made a chair with a wooden frame that you can hide in. By making this prototype we ended up deciding that we really liked the idea of a chair someone could hide in.

Prototype Three

For prototype three we wanted to expand on the idea of hiding in a chair. We wanted to make a more conventional lounging chair that a young child could go into. The entrance is in the back and is hidden by the cloth. By making this prototype we realized that we wanted to make a product that a child could be in by themselves.

Prototype Four

For our final design we iterated on our prior ideas. We still wanted a piece of furniture that a young child could be in but we wanted to implement the idea of nature into our project. We came up with the idea of hexagonal seat that a young child could be in by-themselves.

Play-Testing - 1/2 Scale

Types of Play

Solitary

Construction

Parallel

Technical Diagram

1/2" Plywood

Hexagon Pillows

2x4 Frame

Entrance

Final Photos

Thank You!!!!

The C.H.E.E.S.E is a customizable couch made to encourage creativity and constructive play between parents and children. Using a highly feature packed design, families can have just one piece of furniture for six different types of play!

Project Statement

Precedents

Nugget Couch By: Nugget

Child-like Modular Couch Design

Modular Sectional Sofa By: Linsy Home

Modern, Sleek Modular Couch Design

Inflate Kit By: Ferd Toynton

More open ended, playful modular design

Wyatt

Sketch Exploration

Prototype 1

This was our first attempt at a modular piece of furniture that can can be moved around to serve different purposes, but we decided its shape wasn't that fun and didn't have as many fun rotations as we wanted.

Prototype 2

This couch was the idea we had been working with for a while, we were set on cushions made to create pillow forts, held together by velcro and able to fold into many difference positions. While this idea was exciting and manageable, we were concerned it would take the fun out of fort building, and ultimately decided to swap ideas.

Prototype 2

This was our first prototype for what would become the fully fledged C.H.E.E.S.E.

It had a very cartoony design, looking like an actual block of swiss cheese. But it had all the basics of the many sides all serving different purposes with the user flipping the C.H.E.E.S.E. to use its many functions.

Prototype 3

This was the second lo-fi prototype of the C.H.E.E.S.E.

It went away from the more cartoony design of the second prototype, and went for a more modern, minimalist design that would better fit into homes. It still had all the same functions of the first design, just looked different.

Prototype 4

This was the 4th and final lo-fi prototype of the C.H.E.E.S.E.

This design focused on the actual structure of the Cheese, and how it would be fully put together to be actually functional and not fall apart when someone sits on it.

Full-Scale Prototype

Play-Testing

Technical Diagram

Final Photos

Thank You!!!

An expandable table that can transform into a cozy fort to encourage reading, creating, drawing, and eating as a family to help kids gain imagination skills.

Project Statement

Precedents

Drop-Leaf Table

Paco y Paco by Claudio Larcher

Easily foldable

Table Fort

Basically equivalent to the concept behind this project, but a lot more DIY

Sketch Exploration

Prototype 1



A couch that has holes for a child to crawl through

Prototype 2

An expandable table where the sides fold down to create a fully enclosed space for children and adults to both fit under.

Prototype 3

A table holds a cloth that can be used both as storage for fort items and as the main drape that forms the fort. The table also features folding stretchers to make more room inside.

Prototype 4

A hexagonal table that folds up and down to allow for leg room in table-mode while also creating walls for the fort.

Prototype 5

An expandable table that has supports that fold up to create a frame for a fort.

Full-Scale Prototype

Play-Testing

kai

Use Diagram or Storyboard

1

2

3

4

5

Technical Diagram

Assembly Diagram

Final Photos

Final Video

Thank You!

Any Questions?

Headboard Pegboard is a modular play system designed to be an addition to a bed. The kit includes a pegboard frame as well as a variety of attachments for kids to freely rearrange and play with. This projects enables kids to have greater agency over their surroundings and add a creative element to play.

Project Statement

Precedents

Rigamajig

The Rigamajig is a large scale modular play system designed for kids.

Children's Furniture

Children's Furniture by Students at Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design is an example of a reimagined bed to encourage play

Plakativ

This is an example of a user friendly pegboard system designed for everyday use.

THANK YOU!!!

:3

WHAT WE ARE DOING

WHY WE ARE DOING IT

This activity involves designing dual-seating solutions to promote human interaction, honing prototyping skills with lo-fi materials.

It fosters creative exploration of social dynamics, encourages hands-on learning in prototyping, and cultivates empathy-driven design thinking.

Final Project Expectations

Time: Restricted timeline for prototype development (~3 hrs)

The prototype is designed for 2+ people and effectively encourages and facilitates human interaction.

Materials: Limited to using cardboard, paper, tape, and other low-fidelity materials specified in the studio prompt.

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ACTIVITY MATERIALS

You will design something to sit upon that can accommodate two or more people.

Think about the interactions between the people using your furniture: does it promote conversation, debate, play, collaboration?

THE CHALLENGE

What types of things do you use to sit?

5 min

There are many ways to sit

Ex. low to the ground, high up, bean bags, stools, folding chair, etc.

Precedent Research

Individually:

Have a look at the examples found at the end of this presentation and research your own compilation of inspirational images.

10 mins

10 mins

20 mins

1.

In groups:

Share your findings and note down what design details you find inspiring and want to bring into your project.

Think about how two or more people would use these pieces of furniture, and what dynamics and interactions would be created in its use.

Individually:

Create a list of 10 different ideas of furniture that can accommodate 2 or more people and inspire them to interact in a certain way. You can use sketches too!

Remember to pull different features from the items you researched.

In groups:

Share your ideas/sketches and identify the elements of each that you all find exciting and compelling.

Together, create three new sketches that combine your ideas.

Brainstorming

2.

20 mins

10 mins

10 mins

1 - ENCOURAGE WILD IDEAS

2 - SUSPEND JUDGMENT

4 - BUILD ON IDEAS

5 - BE VISUAL

3 - GO FOR QUANTITY

Wild ideas can often give rise to creative leaps.

Don’t shoot down someone else’s idea.

Aim for as many ideas as possible.

Build and expand on the ideas of others.

Sketch your ideas.

SKETCH MODELS

ITERATIVE PROTOTYPING

FULL-SCALE PROTOTYPING

1

2

3

STAGES OF PROTOTYPING

In groups:

Now it's time to start prototyping small scaled versions of your three sketches.

These will not look finalized and are supposed to be sketchy!

Quick Prototyping

3.

30 mins

Use materials such as paper, tape, and cardboard.

After completing your prototypes, share with your team and give each other feedback.

After discussing, choose one concept to bring into human scale. It might be you combine two concepts to one!

Start thinking about what building mechanisms you will choose.

Go to the Resources Tab and start researching about different ways to use cardboard and ideas on how to construct your project.You can do your own research as well!

Sketch and write out some ideas that you find!

Cardboard and Construction

4.

10 mins

Creating the desired shape by cutting multiple layers of cardboard and gluing them one on top of the other.

Creating furniture by folding cardboard into desired shape (think origami), achieving structure by folding triangular shapes.

Combining both structural grid with a cardboard envelope. 

Stacking:

Folding:

Hybrid:

( + ) Very easy to plan and works great with organic shapes

( - ) Uses lots of material therefore heavy and is time consuming

( + ) very appealing and one can achieve high level of sophistication in the design

( - ) May need larger sheets of cardboard

( + ) This method is very easy to plan and design, doesn't take too much material, and produces light pieces of furniture.

( - )  it works better for simple geometric shapes, but doesn't work that great for curved shapes

https://www.growingupcreative.net/2014/10/cardboard-furniture-techniques-how-to-achieve-strength.html

Break!

In groups:

Draw different angles of your design using estimated measurements.

Include sketches of the different parts of the design that you will cut out from cardboard.

See below for examples:

Detail Drawing

5.

15 mins

Using similar materials from your quick prototypes, build your human-scale prototype!

This time, be more thoughtful on your construction techniques with cutting and assembling.

Remember: how people interact in your chair is the most important aspect of your concept!

Extra Challenge!

We will test your furniture by having your peers sit on them!

Human-Scale Prototyping

6.

75 mins

Collect all your sketches, quick prototype, and human-scale prototype for your peers to see.

We will do a quick walk around to see what our peers have created.

There will be three rounds. Each round one person stays with their project while the other two walk around the space to observe and test other chairs.

Each student will have post-it notes to write their feedback and leave for the group to read.

Sharing & Testing

7.

15 mins

End of Challenge!

Inspiring Projects