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- DIY
Aviator Chair: A Flat Folding Leather Chair Made Using No Joinery
The Aviator Chair is a challenge to create a flat folding luxury leather armchair from a single piece of material with no joinery. Created primarily as a personal design challenge, this chair concept explores ideas of manipulating profile cut flat pieces into sustainable, beautiful and functional 3D forms.
Design Team
Zev Bianchi, Bcompact design
Sydney Australia
Rear detail
Ply half scale
Ply half scale
Ply half scale
Ply half scale
Plywood half scale
Paper 1/5th scale flat
Paper 1/5th scale flat
Designed to be easily manufactured and duplicated after studying design icons of the past like Alvar Aalto and Marcel Breuer, the Aviator Chair implements contemporary technologies to make them more manufacturable, future-proof and attainable for all.
Prototyping
The original prototype was constructed from paper to see if a chair could be made without any joinery, then made in a thin laser cut ply to work on bending and finally in actual material with even more hurdles to climb.
Description of Product
This is a profile cut armchair that echoes the bent plywood designs of the 50s but uses Bamboo Ply board construction and two different types of KERF relief cutting to create bends and folds in the piece and the traditional leather work.
There are no joints or screw fasteners.
Simply cut out from a flat sheet and folded into the chair shape, it was then pinned and covered in the desired material.
The chair was constructed using bamboo ply furniture board and leather.
Use of new technologies
The Aviator Chair was developed using 3D computer modeling. Simple CNC routing was used to cut out the shape and
make the 2 types of KERF cuts, including one straight kerf cut and a lattice kerf cut.
Sustainability notes
Using Bamboo rather than wood is the first
and most definite sustainable aspect. Others sustainability points include simple manufacturing, flat cutting and transport, and minimal parts and materials.
Sustainably sourced bamboo furniture board, zero waste design principles applied to reduce waste material to a minimum and only a short amount of steam bending to evoke the final shape also helped keep the design highly green and sustainable.
Patent Pending, Copyright Bcompact design 2015
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Comments
Thanks guys,
Hi, I´m an architecture student from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, for my final degree project (an automated department) I would like to include the aviator chair (it´s an amazing work of design) inside the furniture. I would like to know if it is possible to make know the measurements (plan and elevation) so that I can draw it for my project, it´s going to be only for academic purposes.
Please tell me how I can purchase this and how much!
Hi Matt.
How does it hold any weight? Everything is surely then loaded on the "pinned" joints.
awesome Zev
This is a terrific use of high and low tech. The leather really lends it a long term and quality feel that so many cnc based designs lack. I do wonder how long it will hold its shape if the leather is used as the resistant element for over bending of the flex joints. Can't wait to see one made in real life.