CHAIR OF SOLEMNITY

Chair of Solemnity is a flat-pack formal dining chair design that showcases users’ elegance and signifies a solemn way of living.

Material: 18mm Colored Core Birch Ply

Treatments: CNC Routing, Hand Sanding, Varnish Finish

Dimension: W19.0” x D20.9” x H45.2”

Design Goal

Countless perfectly functional and visually pleasing pieces of furniture are created and introduced each year. So why is it meaningful to design another piece if furniture is not merely about fashion?

There are many possible answers to this question, one of which is this: Typically, the furniture available on the market reflects people’s lifestyles; however, certain thoughtful designs can have the opposite effect, inspiring individuals to rethink and explore new ways of living. These designs not only provide functional solutions and visual pleasure but also promote deeper shifts in life attitudes.

Chair of Solemnity is supposed to embody this concept and to convey a solemn way of living. It is designed with the hope of offering an invitation to a dignified, reflective, and beautiful way of being in the world.

Inspirations

The easel structure offers the initial inspiration for the chair’s structure and the idea that a chair can be
more than just a seat—it can highlight the beauty of its users.

The solemn atmosphere of Soviet architecture, characterized by high-rises and absolute symmetry,
offers a more specific direction for the chair’s structure.

Polyphony, a type of musical texture consisting multiple lines of independent melody, inspires the
modern decorative pattern on the chair’s back and seat.

Design and Fabrication Process

The design process can be divided into two phases. The first phase focuses on designing the chair’s structure, particularly addressing the challenge of ensuring the stability of the high-rising back. This is a particular challenge for flat-pack plywood chairs, as no hardware can be used, and the strength of plywood is not as robust as hardwood. A long piece of plywood cannot serve as a reliable back unless supported. To solve this problem, a “scaffolding” was first constructed to provide the necessary support.

Once the design of the structure was completed, the second phase focused on creating modern decorative patterns using wood tabs. The goal was to arrange tabs in a way that forms harmonious dashed lines extending along the back and seat, introducing asymmetrical elements into the symmetrical structure.

To achieve the decorative pattern as intended, the ‘dog bone’ technique for making mortises was not used in the fabrication process. After CNC machining, all wood tabs were hand-sanded to fit the mortises.

Assembly