Design workshop V – Toulouse Lautrec Art Institute

Designing a Chair

One of the courses I taught in Toulouse Lautrec Art Institute in Lima, was “Work Shop 5”. The goal was to design and make a chair. Previous to designing, the students had to perform research in the specialized literature about Ergonomics and material inputs.

The course was addressed to overview and implement various techniques that are complementary each other. The group joint work was strategic to enhance a final result and achieving a unique prototype combining optimal design with specific style and functionality.

The chair had to deliver a message and generate an emotion.

As motivation I showed a movie which I knew it would induce in the students strong feelings and emotion. Once they identified their own reactions, we analyzed them together and launch the drawing time. Thus, they made out visible, a concept about the feeling or emotion that each student chose.

Having this information at sight, the class proceeded with the design of their chairs.

Simultaneously, additional information was given to the group, on alternative and environmental friendly materials, including bamboo. I had contacted a Big Bamboo factory in Ecuador, in order to offer more diversity and options and through teleconferences. They group could resolve doubts about the factory and the «staves» pieces that some would use in their designs and that the factory kindly sent.

The results were excellent. The students were not only able to synthesize a concept into a design, they also learned about materials and their application in furniture design. The chairs were exhibit in a famous and very well known Mall in Lima. Some experiences were shared in the INBAR’s monthly newsletter along with individual testimonials.