Our second Material Matters project given to us was Take a…Seat where we were put into teams and asked to design a stool that reflects contemporary culture. In my group we decided to base our stool on loneliness in university students, due to homesickness.
We realised that it was silly to design a stool to solve the problem of loneliness and homesickness so we decided that our stool would raise awareness and help students know where to go for help in this situation. During my research I found that one of the symbolic meaning behind the shape of a triangle was ‘Progression, Direction and Purpose.’ This is where we decided that a triangle would be a good shape for the stool as these words are positive things that can push someone forward when they are feeling down with loneliness. We also decided to change the word ‘Direction’ to ‘Perspective’ to create a catchy ‘3p’ meaning.
I then started playing about with different shaped triangles piled on top of each other and came up with the idea to create a spiral looking stool as ‘Loneliness is an endless spiral of emotions.’
After playing around with different types of triangles I realised that only a perfect equilateral triangle would work to create the perfect spiral.
A model was then built to make sure that this design would actually work in a scaled version. We also tested out our joining with the model as the strips will fit together but can be cut without any wastage as they always fit together.
The stool was then built from cardboard as this is a lightweight material so it can be easily moved or carried around as there are so many layers to the stool and the finished proto type worked perfectly, looked great and felt comfortable to sit on!
The stool will also have the contact information for the enquiry centre on the bottom so the students know where to go or who to contact when they feel they need help…
jsomervilledesign 