A Physical Chair that Defies the Laws of Physics

Danielle Connelly, an architect, and Sarah Templin, a textile designer, collaborated to capitalize on their expertise, combining the most soft and feminine qualities of textiles with the structural and formal qualities of architecture.

Made from just one single 1,000 meter long cotton string impregnated with soy-based resin, it's both load-bearing and lightweight. Its total weight is less than a kilo (merely 2.1 lbs).

material experiments

We tinker all dang day. Which materials make the strongest composites? Basalt, kevlar, fiber glass, cotton? Which stitch, hook size, and fiber geometry creates the most structurally sound and lightweight material? Check out our material studies to see where we are now.

molding & form

How can we develop a mold with unique demolding capabilities to disguise the exit points of the molding rods and create interior voids which increased the strength of the chair? And how will that drive the final shape of our chair?

say hello

Get in touch and find out more about Sarah and Danielle.

How it All Began

This collaborative project between Danielle and Sarah began as an extension of our Global Studio chair competition with Roche Bobois, who needed a dining chair with a sustainable emphasis and a visual sense of fantasy.

We sought a load bearing form through the use and exploration of structural fibers. How could we allow textiles to transcend the limits of structural dependency. How could we dissolve the traditional structural scaffolding of furniture while strengthening a fiber to become both the structure and the upholstery?

The project evolved throughout the semester and began to move away from the constraints of a chair and into a more general study of creating structure from textiles through experiments in form and mold making.

We paired careful geometries with a composite of eco-friendly soy-based epoxy and cotton butcher string. This created a wear-resistant, structurally sound and lightweight material that is aligned with Roche Bobois’ sustainability goals of minimal materials and a long service life.

One key insight of our vast material experiments was that circular knit patterns coupled with cylindrical geometry yielded extremely robust properties. This became a basis of all our future models.

We needed to develop a mold with unique demolding capabilities that would disguise the exit points of the molding rods and create interior voids which increased the strength of the chair.

The form became driven by these two keystones: the mold and the circular knit volumes. They asserted their presence upon on each other. The rods controlled the shape of the chair but were also influenced by the tension of the fibers.