By Evan Ackerman
No matter how many branches you pile on the floor of your living room, you’re not likely to make yourself a comfy chair. As it turns out, the reason for this is simply that you’re not using big enough branches… If you use a branch big enough that you can see its individual cells, and you carve it into a block, and then use magic to make it squishy, you end up with what looks to be a spectacularly comfortable chair.
Yu-Ying Wu’s “Breathing Chair” is, indeed, based on plant cells. The bigger cells are more flexible than the smaller cells, so when you sit in it, the carefully calculated network naturally forms an arm chair. It’s made out of a 100% environmentally friendly foam plastic that’s sproingy enough to give you a little boost as you stand up, too. The chair received a Red Dot Design Award earlier this year, which could mean that someone’s going to pick it up for production.
VIA [ Core77 ]