The furniture series series one

University of Iowa Iowa Research Online Theses and Dissertations Spring 2012 The furniture series series one Shu Wun Chan University of Iowa Copyright 2012 Shu Wun Chan This thesis is available at Iowa Research Online: http://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/2836 Recommended Citation Chan, Shu Wun. "The furniture series series one." MA (Master of Arts) thesis, University of Iowa, 2012. http://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/2836. Follow this and additional works at: http://ir.uiowa.edu/etd Part of the Art Practice Commons

THE FURNITURE SERIES SERIES ONE by Shu Wun Chan A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts degree in Art In the Graduate College of The University of Iowa May 2012 Thesis Supervisor: Associate Professor Monica Correia

Copyright by SHU WUN CHAN 2012 All Rights Reserved

Graduate College The University of Iowa Iowa City, Iowa CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL MASTER S THESIS This is to certify that the Master s thesis of Shu Wun Chan has been approved by the Examining Committee for the thesis requirement for the Master of Arts degree in Art at the May 2012 graduation Thesis Committee: Monica Correia, Thesis Supervisor Steve McGuire Ab Gratama

ABSTRACT This is a research project to design a series of flat pack furniture that assemble without using any hardware and tools. The furniture series include a chair, a table, a coffee table, a side table, a bed and a sofa. Wheels were designed in the furniture to create mobility with the exception of the bed. Sustainable materials, such as Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) certified plywood and High-density polyethylene (HDPE), had been used to produce the furniture. Rapid prototyping (RP) processes were being used to shorten the design process, such as Computer Aided-Design program (CAD) and Computer Modeling software to design; 3D Printer to create small scale model; Computer Numerical Control (CNC) to create full-scale prototype. Flat packaging has been used in the series to provide convenient to transport the furniture and lower the shipping cost. ii

TABLE OF CONTENS LIST OF FIGURES..iv INTRODUCTION..1 CHAIRONE...6 TABLEONE.18 SOFAONE...21 BEDONE..22 CONCLUSION 23 REFERENCES.24 iii

LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Inter IKEA System B.V., LACK side table in birch effect. 1980. photo taken 2011. Medium-density fiberboard 2 2. Inter IKEA System B.V. LACK side table assembly instructions. 2011. Digital.2 3. Inter IKEA System B.V. BILLY bookcase in birch effect. 1979. photo taken 2011. Medium-density fiberboard..3 4. Inter IKEA System B.V. BILLY brochure. 2011. (p.3) illustration..4 5. Inter IKEA System B.V. BILLY brochure. 2011. (p.3) illustration..5 6. Shu Wun Chan. Go-Chair. 2008. Computer rendering...... 7 7. Shu Wun Chan. Table, 2008. Computer rendering....7 8. Shu Wun Chan. Go-Chair with armrest. 2008. Computer rendering.7 9. Shu Wun Chan. Go-Chair barstool. 2008. Computer rendering 8 10. Shu Wun Chan. Go-Chair office chair. 2008.Computer rendering...8 11. Shu Wun Chan. Go-Chair. 2008. 3D Printed scaled model...8 12. Shu Wun Chan. ChairONE first draft drawing. 2010. AutoCAD 10 13. Shu Wun Chan. ChairONE first draft computer modeling. 2010. AutoCAD..10 14. Shu Wun Chan. ChairONE first 3D Printed model. 2010. 3D Printed 10 15. Shu Wun Chan. ChairONE 3D Printed model (Second version). 2010. 3D Printed..11 16. Shu Wun Chan. Computer Numerical Control router. 2010. photograph 11 17. Shu Wun Chan. Medium-density fiberboard. 2010. MDF...11 18. Shu Wun Chan. ChairONE and TableONE MDF prototype. 2010. MDF...12 19. Shu Wun Chan. chairone 3D Printed model (final version). 2010. 3D Printed..13 20. Shu Wun Chan. chairone (Plywood edition). 2010. Sustainable Plywood...13 iv

21. Shu Wun Chan. Reprocessed Plastic Inc. 2011...14 22. Shu Wun Chan. CNC router in Processed Plastic Inc. 2011 15 23. Shu Wun Chan. chairone white and black. 2011. HDPE..15 24. Shu Wun Chan. chairone black and white. 2011. HDPE..16 25. Shu Wun Chan. chairone wood and white. 2011. HDPE and sustainable plywood...16 26. Shu Wun Chan. chairone wood and black. 2011. HDPE and sustainable plywood 17 27. Shu Wun Chan. chairone and tableone wood. 2011. HDPE and sustainable plywood 18 28. Shu Wun Chan. tableone. 2011. HDPE sustainable plywood...19 29. Shu Wun Chan. tableone with white tabletop. 2011. HDPE and sustainable plywood 19 30. Shu Wun Chan. coffeetableone with. 2011. HDPE and sustainable plywood 20 31. Shu Wun Chan. sidetableone. 2011. HDPE and sustainable plywood..20 32. Shu Wun Chan. tvsetone. 2011. HDPE and sustainable plywood.20 33. Shu Wun Chan. sofaone. 2011. HDPE and sustainable plywood..21 34. Shu Wun Chan. bedone. 2011. HDPE and sustainable plywood..22 v

1 INTRODUCTION In 1956 a Swedish furniture maker, IKEA, launched the world s first ready-toassemble (RTA) furniture and since then has become the world s largest furniture retailer and one of the largest environmental conscious furniture retailers in the world. It combined the concepts of ready-to-assemble furniture and environmental friendliness to produce furniture. Ready-to-assemble furniture is a type of furniture that is sold on a flatpack package and is assembled by the consumer with the hardware and tools provided in the packaging. The advantage of RTA furniture is the elimination of shipping cost to provide a quality product to consumer at an inexpensive cost. LACK by IKEA is a very good example. LACK is a side table designed by IKEA furnishing in 1980 (figure 2). It came as a RTA flat pack package and cost $9.99 in the U.S. market. It is made out of medium-density fiberboard (MDF); a material made out of compassed wood fiber bonded with glue in high temperature. That process creates strong, lightweight, and environmentally friendly furniture since the wood fiber is recycled from other wood working processing. The assembly is rather simple, and is demonstrated in figure 2 (figure 2). First, you attach one side of a two-way screw on the top of the table leg, and then you attach the other side of the screw with the table leg onto the tabletop. In less then five minutes, you have a side table ready to be used. It s easy to assemble and light weight. LACK sold in several finishing including birch effect, black, black-brown, white, green, high-gloss gray, high-gloss red, and high gloss white. LACK also has other variants, such as a side table with casters, a TV unit, a coffee table and several wall shelf units.

2 Figure 1. Inter IKEA System B.V., LACK side table in birch effect. 1980. photo taken 2011. Medium-density fiberboard. Source: Inter IKEA System B.V., 2011. http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40104270/ Figure 2. Inter IKEA System B.V. LACK side table assembly instructions. 2011. Digital. Source: Inter IKEA System B.V., 2011. http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40104270/

3 Gillis Lundgren, a pioneer in RTA furniture and designer at IKEA, designed the BILLY bookcase in 1979 (figure 3). Gillis Lundgren describes, It was 30 years ago, I got the assignment to design a simple, functional and smart storage solution for books. I couldn't have imagined then that BILLY bookcase would wind up in so many homes across the whole world. I remember being especially pleased with the adjustable shelves and the depth of the bookcase - perfect for books. We were also able to transport it in a flat pack - an idea I was actually first to develop. The bookcase is still one of my favorites and I hope it continues to be around for many more years. 1 MDF is being used as the primary material in the BILLY series, same as in the LACK series. Since the BILLY bookcase launched in 1979, the BILLY bookcase has expanded to a whole storage solution system with many combinations and parts (figure 4 and 5) to let consumer to be customize to fit their need. Figure 3. Inter IKEA System B.V. BILLY bookcase in birch effect. 1979. photo taken 2011. Medium-density fiberboard. Source: Inter IKEA System B.V., 2011. http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10208472/ 1 Lundgren, Gillis. BILLY product information page. Designer thoughts. 2011. Inter IKEA System B.V., 2011. http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40071788/

4 Figure 4. Inter IKEA System B.V. BILLY brochure. 2011. (p.3) illustration. Source: Inter IKEA System B.V., 2011. http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_us/pdf/buying_guides/billy_aug2011_bg.pdf

5 Figure 5. Inter IKEA System B.V. BILLY brochure. 2011. (p.3) illustration. Source: Inter IKEA System B.V., 2011. http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_us/pdf/buying_guides/billy_aug2011_bg.pdf

6 CHAIRONE For my M.A. research, I have designed and created a series of furniture that does not require hardware to hold together and assemble without using any tools. I have planned to have a chair, a table, a bed, a coffee table, and a sofa to be parts of the series. The first piece of furniture I established was a chair called chairone. I started my design concept with the concept chair I did when I was an undergraduate Go-Chair. Go-Chair (figure 6) is a concept chair that has wheels to provide mobility. The chair was later expanded into a variety of furniture including a dining table (figure 7), a go-chair with armrest (figure 8), a bar stool (figure 9), and office chair (figure 10). A full-scale prototype was never produced and it only stayed in a concept form and with a 3D Printed small-scale prototype (figure 11). The design elements of the Go-Chair were inspiration of designing the chairone. With the design inspiration from Go-Chair, I have to decided the size of the chair, the material and how the furniture to be packed. The idea is to design ready-to-assemble furniture in a flat packaging. All the pieces of the chair can be fitted in a 24 x 24 x 6 inches cardboard box. The manufacture is to being produced on Computer Numerical Control (CNC) router on a flat sheet of ¾ inches material. The only hardware is the parts to install the wheel that would be using the 3D Printer to be produced.

7 Figure 6. Shu Wun Chan. Go-Chair. 2008. Computer rendering. Figure 7. Shu Wun Chan. Table, 2008. Computer rendering. Figure 8. Shu Wun Chan. Go-Chair with armrest. 2008. Computer rendering.

8 Figure 9. Shu Wun Chan. Go-Chair barstool. 2008. Computer rendering. Figure 10. Shu Wun Chan. Go-Chair office chair. 2008.Computer rendering. Figure 11. Shu Wun Chan. Go-Chair. 2008. 3D Printed scaled model.

9 By using Computer-Aided Design (CAD) software, I drafted the first version of the chair (figure 12). Then, a 3D computer model was created to ensure the parts fit into each other correctly (figure 13). Once this was complete, the 3D model was sent to the 3D Printer to produce a small-scale prototype (figure 14) to check for any defects with the design of the parts. In the early model, two flat pieces to construct the seating of the chair and the wheel was embedded on the back legs of the chair in the early design (figure 14). A second model was produced as the changed design and structure adjustments were made as well, (figure 15) such as a back piece added to stabilized legs. After adjustments were made on the chair, a full-scale prototype was produced on the Computer Numerical Control (CNC) router (figure 16). The choice of the material used on this prototype (figure 17) is medium-density fiberboard (MDF). The MDF I bought from the hardware store is different than those used on IKEA furniture. Instead of wood fiber, layers of paper compassed to create the thickness of the material (figure 17). The result it is much heavier and denser then the MDF that use for IKEA furniture. The purpose of making a full-scale prototype (figure 18) is to see stability of the structure in full-scale and to make sure it is comfortable height and width to be used for a regular adult. Tests and adjustments were made on the drawings for the final prototype.

10 Figure 12. Shu Wun Chan. ChairONE first draft drawing. 2010. AutoCAD. Figure 13. Shu Wun Chan. ChairONE first draft computer modeling. 2010. AutoCAD. Figure. 14. Shu Wun Chan. ChairONE first 3D Printed model. 2010. 3D Printed.

11 Figure 15. Shu Wun Chan. ChairONE 3D Printed model (Second version). 2010. 3D Printed. Figure 16. Shu Wun Chan. Computer Numerical Control router. 2010. photograph. Figure 17. Shu Wun Chan. Medium-density fiberboard. 2010. MDF.

12 Figure 18. Shu Wun Chan. ChairONE and TableONE MDF prototype. 2010. MDF. Before a final full-scale prototype was made, final adjustments were made. First, a bar was added from the front leg to the rear leg to provide stability. Second, the wheel was relocated behind the rear leg. A handle was also created to ease when the user rolls the chair which also functions as a hook to handle a small object such as jacket or a small purse. A final small-scale 3D printed model (figure 19) was produced from the pre-stated adjustments to see if changes needed to be made once more before it was produced on the CNC router in full-scale. ¾ inch Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) certified birch plywood was chosen for the material of the final prototype. Adjustments were made due to the plywood being thinner then the MDF I previously used even though they were labeled as ¾ inch material. After the final prototype was cut in the CNC router, sanding and finishing was required. I used a water-based environmentally friendly finishing to keep the idea of the project as environmental friendly and sustainable as possible. After the plywood chairone was produced (figure 20), I discovered a new type of sustainable material that could create variants of ChairONE.

13 Figure 19. Shu Wun Chan. chairone 3D Printed model (final version). 2010. 3D Printed. Figure 20. Shu Wun Chan. chairone (Plywood edition). 2010. Sustainable Plywood.

14 The new material that comes across to me is a type of recycled plastic sheet called high-density polyethylene (HDPE). It is made by a company called Reprocessed Plastic Inc. in Garfield, Minnesota which I visited (figure 21). They have two CNC routers (figure 22) on site and it can cut as large as a four feet by eight feet flat sheet material, so I was able to cut some of my chair on site and for future project. According to the manager of the plant, the raw materials they use to make the HDPE are plastic bottles. It is available in ¾ inch in black and white. Discovering this material created an opportunity to create new variants color combinations for chairone such as, in white and black plastic (figure 23), in black and white plastic (figure 24), in white plastic and wood, (figure 25) and in black plastic and wood (figure 26). It creates the flexibility to choose any color combination a user wants, just like the furniture sold in IKEA. However, one advantage of my furniture is you can replace the color anytime by replacing the pieces anytime the user wanted. At the same time I was designing chairone, I was also designing another piece of furniture meant to be a companion of chairone. Figure 21. Shu Wun Chan. Reprocessed Plastic Inc. 2011.

15 Figure 22. Shu Wun Chan. CNC router in Processed Plastic Inc. 2011. Figure 23. Shu Wun Chan. chairone white and black. 2011. HDPE.

16 Figure 24. Shu Wun Chan. chairone black and white. 2011. HDPE. Figure 25. Shu Wun Chan. chairone wood and white. 2011. HDPE and sustainable plywood.

Figure 26. Shu Wun Chan. chairone wood and black. 2011. HDPE and sustainable plywood. 17

18 TABLEONE tableone is a table that can be assembled without any tools and uses wheels to create mobility. It was designed as a companion with chairone (figure 27). It was developed during the same time frame as chairone and went through the same design process; with a 3D Printed model and a full-scale model (figure 18). Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) certified birch plywood and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) were used as materials. Since there is no thicker plywood than ¾ inch plywood, I had to glue two pieces of ¾ plywood to thicken it because only one ¾ inch plywood cannot provide stability for the table leg. a plywood tabletop (figure 28) and a HDPE tabletop (figure 29) was produced to give user option of two different variants. I have also designed a shorter version of the table leg to create a coffee table (figure 30), a side table (figure 31), and a TV set (figure 32). Parts are interchangeable, so the user can choose the length of the tabletop according to the user needs. Figure 27. Shu Wun Chan. chairone and tableone wood. 2011. HDPE and sustainable plywood.

19 Figure 28. Shu Wun Chan. tableone. 2011. HDPE sustainable plywood. Figure 29. Shu Wun Chan. tableone with white tabletop. 2011. HDPE and sustainable plywood.

20 Figure 30. Shu Wun Chan. coffeetableone with. 2011. HDPE and sustainable plywood. Figure 31. Shu Wun Chan. sidetableone. 2011. HDPE and sustainable plywood. Figure 32. Shu Wun Chan. tvsetone. 2011. HDPE and sustainable plywood.

21 SOFAONE sofaone (figure 33) is a sofa that can be assembled without using any tools and has wheels to create mobility. ¾ inch Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) certified birch plywood and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) were used as materials with an addition cushion made out of foam and wrapped with fabric in white. It is part of the furniture series with chairone and tableone. Figure 33. Shu Wun Chan. sofaone. 2011. HDPE and sustainable plywood.

22 BEDONE bedone (figure 33) is a sofa that can be assembled without using any tools. Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) certified birch plywood and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) were used as materials. It is part of the furniture series with chairone and tableone. Figure 34. Shu Wun Chan. bedone. 2011. HDPE and sustainable plywood.

23 CONCLUSION In the future, I would like to improve the furniture series. First design a identity and packaging for the series and I m planning to working on design a series of office furniture, such as an office table, office chair and office cubical basic on the same design element.

24 REFERENCES Lundgren, Gillis. BILLY product information page. Designer thoughts. 2011. Inter IKEA System B.V., 2011. http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40071788/