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Aeron Tozier: Working Out the Design Language of Carbon Fiber

By Rain Noe - May 19, 2011

in Object Culture

Good designers mess around with new materials to discover their distinct properties, creating forms they could not have made with the previous generation's materials. Through their workshop experimentation we eventually get objects like the bentwood Thonet chair, the Eameses bent-plywood furniture, Robin Day's polyprop stacking chair, et cetera.

We've yet to see a definitive object emerge using carbon fiber, but one of the designers seeking it is architect/industrial designer Aeron Tozier. Tozier's Ascension line of furniture combines quilted leather and resin-coated brass with the wispy-yet-sturdy structures carbon fiber is capable of being formed into.

Tozier, who formed his own architecture/design brand last year, is notably not only interested in the design of luxury objects, as the use of carbon fiber would imply, but also has a strong interest in humanitarian design:

[Tozier underwent] a 3 year research scholarship in construction process innovation and energy systems where his work on sustainable city projects in Southeast Asia has been funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. Most of his professional work has been involved in the prototyping of modern ecological community and housing solutions. His "G-Home Energy Hybrid," a design for a hyper-ecological dwelling, is being reviewed for use by FEMA and the United Nations (UN-HABITAT).

Check out more of his work here.

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Brett

13 years ago

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A comment to [Scott], the self-claimed expert on CF engineering and fabrication: Just because you don't know how its built, doesn't mean its "not producible" or "impossible" --people who claim such things are historically too shallow to ever figure anything difficult out for themselves. It's too bad. Nevertheless, it's comments like these which add to the mystery, intrigue and lore of the object/s in question.
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Bob

13 years ago

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Not sure where these comments are coming from?! Everything other design noted is still on four legs. This design floats. I have never seen anything quite like it.
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Scott

13 years ago

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"We've yet to see a definitive object emerge using carbon fiber"

I don't agree, but this certainly ain't it. These shapes would not be producible as rendered. For one thing, cured composites have to be removed from a mold, so this would have to be made in (at least) two pieces and bonded together, with an unsightly bondline in a very visible spot. More than that though, to achieve a good molded surface, you have to apply pressure to the back side of the laminate, either with vacuum or an autoclave. That would be impossible on those very thin cantilevered sections.

Why don't you get back to us when this object exists outside of Vray, and save this kind of thing for Yanko.

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Justin Floyd

13 years ago

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"We've yet to see a definitive object emerge using carbon fiber"? Really? How about the automotive industry [the high end]Sports and F1 cars, and cycling with lovely carbon Road bikes and components?
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HighlyAdequate

13 years ago

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Alberto Meda designed a carbon fiber chair for Alias in 1987. At 980 grams it defies gravity and is far more comfortable than its stealth bomber aesthetic suggests.

Have a Look
http://www.designboom.com/history/meda.html
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conan abel

13 years ago

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These are renders? Hardly demonstrates carbonfibres real structural properties. I'm not saying these designs wouldn't work, its just dissapointing not to see it in the flesh.

Impressive renders though.
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