Parametric Design furniture
August 20, 2023
Michaela Crie Stone lives and works in Rockport, Maine, where she creates pieces that push the parameters of function by blurring the lines between art, craft, and design.
To design a kinetic table Haeyoung Kim chose origami as a concept. Paper contains fibers and they are entangled with each other which make them possible to stay together without any additional medium. Idea of having no joint and still be able to construct a structure is fascinating. By folding papers, it naturally makes joints and holds pieces together. Because of foldability, paper maintains its tensible strength when folded back and forth. Understanding characteristics of papers is critical to make foldable and transformable furniture without glue or joints.
Thickness of paper becomes an issue. The body is combined with 12 individual units which add additional thickness to the structure. The thicker papers are, the less accurate angle, height and width are, and that gives unstable support for structure. Thickness hinders not only a transformation process, but also limits paper choices. Therefore, designer combined units to one long piece of paper and eliminated overlapping (redundant) areas, so that It becomes half length of the original. Combining units saves a great deal of material, and increases accuracy in folding and assembly.
As the furniture transforms, the load distribution follows the geometry. Origami structure allows to work structurally as a whole by synthesizing complex tension and compression. Inherently each form has its own load path and they deform adaptably as heavier object is applied.
