Ben Walker
BA Furniture & Product Design
I've enjoyed working on ideas without a clear destination in sight, as I love the process of experimentation and discovery as the project unfolds. Working to a brief can sometimes limit this approach, but it's an exciting challenge to explore the many alternative routes to delivering a product.
Are you sitting comfortably?
'Are you sitting comfortably?' is a project that explores the interaction we have with a chair. Looking through the lens of comfort, it became clear that a comfortable chair isn't just a chair with thick cushions and a reclined back. Comfort lies with the user, and the multiple sitting positions we adopt to find it.
The project took the traditional approach of making an upholstered lounge chair and turned the process on its head. Instead of the upholstery being informed by the shape of the chair, in this project the upholstery is designed to work with the user to find comfortable sitting positions. With the chair itself being a frame that supports this interaction.
Bruno Munari's 'finding comfort in an uncomfortable chair' poster, along with some of the work by designer Peter Opsvik inspired the concept for this project. Specifically, how we don't all sit the same way and that comfort comes from changing sitting positions.
The result is an intriguing piece that encourages the user to explore different sitting positions, as we all have different ways of sitting comfortably.
Sharing Boards
Sharing Boards are a trio of ash serving boards, designed to encourage interaction around the dining table. Their design lends themselves to be handled and manoeuvred around a table of any size, due to their stacking ability.
The sharing boards were inspired by research into how attitudes to meal times have changed as often families don?t eat meals together, instead opting for takeaways or choosing to eat at differing times.