HOW TO MAKE (ALMOST) ANYTHING
MAS.863 / FALL 2011
KELLY SHAW
M.ARCH LEVEL III
03 / PCB DESIGN, FABRICATION, AND ASSEMBLY
04 / WATERJET CUTTER AND CNC MILLING
11 / INTERFACE AND APPLICATION PROGRAMMING
12 / MECHANICAL AND MACHINE DESIGN
13 / NETWORKING AND COMMUNICATIONS
WEEK 01 / INITIAL PROJECT PROPOSAL
I have two great loves: Food + Design. My goal for this class is to create an interactive piece
of dining furniture, which in some way creates a memory of the experience. There have been
dozens of truly iconic chairs created throughout the centuries. While the chairs may have
evolved to reflect changing styles, the functionality of the chair has remained the same.
Louis XV Chair
Louis XVI Chair
As technologies and materials developed, many of the iconic chairs of the past were re-
interpreted. The combination of modern manufacturing processes with the nostalgia of Louis
XVI's Chair [not sure why Kartell advertises it as Louis XV] inspired designer Philippe Starck
to create a new icon: The Louis Ghost Armchair [2002]. Starck took the formal, floral form
of Louis XVI's Chair and translated it into a single form of injection-molded polycarbonate.
Starck's Ghost Armchair is aptly named not only for its transparency but for its reference to
its predecessor.
Louis Ghost Armchair
Starck's own design has been iterated on to create many variations on the original
Ghost Armchair. Below is the dining room of the Felix Restaurant in Hong Kong.
The image above inspired my initial project proposal when I started to imagine how the presence
of a person could leave a trace on the experience of a chair. I started to sketch out my own
ideas for a new Ghost Chair.
Which then led to the idea of creating a seemingly ordinary chair which, when activated by a
user could leave some type of impression or memory.
The trickiest part is that I'm not sure how the image capturing mechanism would occur but I'll
think more about how the chair can be actualized and interacted with in the coming weeks...
