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Manual's Stool Nº1 is a Modern Take on the Iconic Hairpin Design
Stool Nº1 is a modern bar stool by Manual—made in Chicago with a combination of computer-controlled-machines and hand-craft. A descendant of the iconic "hairpin" design, the gracefully contoured steel frame plays with lines and curves to imply corners and edges. Stool Nº1 offers uncluttered aesthetics and a visual lightness to your home, while its strength and quality USA-made construction will ensure years of everyday use. Stool Nº1 is funding on Kickstarter until August 31st!
Design Team
Craighton Berman
Manual designs objects that celebrate slowness.We strive to create products that encourage you to slow down and appreciate the moment. For our latest design we wanted to focus on the stool—our favorite form of seating. What's slower than sitting?
We love stools because they're both structured and architectural—yet at the same time informal and flexible. Whether it's reading a paper and sipping coffee at your breakfast counter, pulling up a stool at your local watering hole, or having a conversation over a glass of wine—the stool is always a welcome perch.
We designed Stool Nº1 to be a warm & modern barstool with an understated presence.Stool Nº1 offers uncluttered aesthetics and a visual lightness for your home. A descendant of the iconic "hairpin" design, the gracefully contoured steel frame plays with lines and curves to imply corners and edges. Its strength and quality USA-made construction will ensure years of everyday use.
Stool Nº1 was designed on the North side of Chicago. The steel wire frame for Stool Nº1 is CNC-bent and hand welded on the West side. The durable powder coat finish is applied on the South side. The CNC-cut and hand-finished hardwood seat is made in Appleton, Wisconsin. Stool Nº1 is the proud product of Midwest manufacturing.
How it's Made
Stool Nº1 started as an exploration in bent wire stool construction—in these early sketches designer Craighton Berman was playing with different tubing forms for the frame, as well as various seating materials—including a leather sling. The bottom 'hairpin leg" concept was a breakthrough, as it allowed for a thinner gauge wire to be used. This meant the design could be visually light while still maintaining strength.
Stool Nº1 is a descendant of the classic hairpin leg design from the mid-century, but it's also very modern: it's digitally formed by a CNC wire bending machine—essentially a robot that makes accurate wire bends rapidly and affordably. Here you can see Wieslaw—the programmer—running the CNC machine, as it creates a leg for Stool Nº1 in about 16 seconds flat.
While Stool Nº1 appears to have a continuous wire frame, it's actually constructed from 4 identical legs butt welded together. This creates manufacturing efficiency for the CNC wire bending process by only having to create a two types of parts—a few simple pieces come together to express the final design.
Welding is where the automated manufacturing moves back to manual. The legs of Stool Nº1 are butt welded and adjusted by hand to reach the final form. Afterwards they have the final details added—the foot rest, the 4 metal tabs that attach the seat, and the optional floor protector feet.
The frames are then sent out to for powder coating—a finishing process where a powder is electrostatically charged and then sprayed on the frame. The stool frame is grounded, so the powder is attracted to the metal and evenly sticks to the surface. The frame then enters a curing oven where it chemically bonds with the metal. At the same time the hardwood seat is being CNC routed and hand finished, ready for final assembly in our studio.
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Comments
Love this!
I sure hope you are allowing for seasonal wood expansion and shrinkage in your fastening system. I was in a cafe recently where the stools had a roughly similar design — and every single wooden seat had split. Like, really seriously butt-pinchingly split. They had over-fastened the wood to the steel frames.
Thanks for the concern Ken—I think we have a way to take care of expansion. :-)
It seems pretty obvious how having a tab on each of the four legs and then having them in the hairpin bent leg condition would turn the legs into essentially springs that would naturally allow for the wood to expand or contract. At first my assumption was that the natural spring tension of the metal was gripping the wood top until the text revealed tabs were indeed welded on (and that likely helps reinforce those butt joints so that makes sense) in any case its a simple form with some hidden benefits so I dog it
You got it Scott—well said!