Triangúla

Product Design - Industrial Design

JUNIOR FALL, MIT - 2018

Designed and fabricated for MIT course 4.031: Design Objects + Interations.

Project Overview

Case study for this assignment was Enzo Mari's 'Chair Q' which emphasizes simple design instructions for quick and pleasant fabrication. The challenge for this assignment was to derive a functional chair design from a set of rules.

Design Rules

Triangúla Chair was fabricated with 1" x 2" inch, rectangular Poplar lumber. A material constraint was added to make the design assigment more challenging.  

The rules were simple;

1. Decide the chair height and size of the seat. These dimensions determine the size of the largest triangle in the design.

2. All triangle side lengths can be scaled down by half, resulting in dimensions for smaller triangles.

3. Smaller assembled triangles are inscribed onto the large triangle for decoration and structural support.

4. Triangle panels are assembled to form final chair.

Four different sketches taken from CAD software. TOP, SIDE, PERSPECTIVE, BACK.

Prototyping + Fabrication

The design process for Triangúla involved a lot of CAD editing and prototyping the physics of laterally joined triangles. Below is an image of some miniature prototypes. Also below, two photos taken during the fabrication and assembly phases of the project.

Final Product

Triangúla features pointy legs and a pointy back rest. At first glance the chair seems uncomfortable, but the two large triangles that form the back rest provide an ideal angle for good posture. No finish or color was added to the chair; the rough, yet elegant style of Triangúla accents the carefully placed screws and  beautiful complexity of triangles. Given the material constraint, the chair was smaller than an ideal design size with unlimited resources. ​

Dimensions: 20.25 in. x 20.25 in. x 38.75 in. 

Material: Wood (Poplar lumber stock)