Branch chair

Branch Chair

for short waiting

KOR

"Rest while you wait"

On the street, many people stay in one place for a while, waiting for something. BRANCH CHAIR are installed on streets and public places to give people a short break.

Project duration : 1 month (2019.04~05)

Role : product designer /Research, ideation, sketching, modeling, rendering, photography.

Project type : Self-produced project / participated in Design Award

Tools : Rhino, Keyshot, Photoshop, Illustrator

Award : Awarded by Korea Sweden Young Design Award 2019 Finalist.

https://www.ksyda.com/kor/sub/archive2019.html

Observation : Resting people on the street

People wait for traffic lights, buses, subways, friends, coworkers, etc. on the street. Then, instead of finding a chair and sitting down, they rest against the wall, sit on the railings, or slightly sit on street structures.

Drawing - the posture of people, who are resting / marker, pen / Se Hyeon Won

Inspiration : Birds on the branch, People on the chair.

Everyone needs a place to rest. The birds rest on the branches for a while and then fly away again. People, instead, rest in their chairs and get back up. These two are completely different creatures, but they have a common behavior.

Crows on the roof and chair / Aqua color / Se Hyeon Won

Sparrows sitting on a bush / Pen drawing / Se Hyeon Won

Experiment & Analysis

I analyzed the poses people take during short staying and imitated the poses by myself. And I took a picture to see what body parts were weighed and contacted. And to analyze each posture, this process was recorded as a collage.

Form Study. 01

People's posture for short pause was evaluated according to five criteria, and the basic chair shape was designed based on it.

When people lean and rest for a while, they take a posture to get up as fast as possible. And they reduces the burden on their body by shifting the center of gravity to other structures. I evaluated it at a higher value, if the area that a person leans on is more space-saving than a chair, and also if it consumes less force than it does when it rises from a chair. In addition, it was also evaluated how wide a view can be secured while a person rests. And I chose and combined three structural shapes with high scores, and I designed a chair that included all of them.

Sketch about relaxing poses / Pen drawing / Se Hyeon Won

Chairs for relaxing / Pen drawing / Se Hyeon Won

Form Study 02

I collaged different shapes of chairs based on images of people who waiting something on the street.

First, I took a photo of people on the street. Then rapid prototyping was done to determine the actual shape of the chairs. I made the chair from a wire, one of the materials suitable for rapid prototyping, and photographed it. Different shapes of chairs were designed, and it was decided what kind of design is suitable for the public place and people's posture. I then collaged the prototype in the following pictures.

1:1 Scale Prototyping

I built a chair with paper roll bar in scale 1:1 to experience the actual use.

When people glance at a Branch chair, they should be able to intuitively realize that it is a chair and lean on it. Therefore, the part where people sit was designed to match the height of their hip.

If the chair is designed too high, it is impossible for short people to sit on it. Therefore, the overall height of chair was designed slightly lower. I thought it would be a better direction to allow more people to sit on it, even if it was a little uncomfortable for tall people to sit on.

Human factors & Egonomics

The size, height, and proportion of the branch chair were designed using the DINED website, an anthrometry database.

The database on the DINED website shows that the height from the sole of the foot to the bottom of the hip of an average man and woman is 981 mm, slightly less than 1 m. (Age 18 to 66), and that the average length from the sole of the foot to the elbow is 1084 mm. The length required for the armrest is 103 mm, or about 10 cm.

However, setting the chair height at 981 mm is not a good decision. People with an above-average hip height can sit even if the height of the chair is lower than 981 mm. This is because they can sit down if they bend their knees a little. However, people with below average hip height cannot sit at all if the chair is designed at 981 mm height. Therefore, the height of the chair is designed at 900 mm, so that about 90% of people can lean.

If the armrest has a height of 103 mm, people cannot lean on their arm to reach the armrest because the armrest is at the same height as the soles of their feet and elbows. Therefore, above a certain height, the armrest must be designed so that people can easily lift their arms and rest them on the armrest. Therefore, the armrest height should be at least 150 mm, and the test should be repeated to determine the most comfortable height.

The result of the design of the chair height of 900 mm was satisfactory. However, the armrest felt too low at a height of 150 mm. Since the chair is not made of a soft material, it may become difficult for the user to use it, assuming the height of the elbow. Considering the case that people normally rest their arms on the armrest, the protruding part between the middle of the arm and the elbow is supported on the armrest. Assuming that the user bends his arms slightly and reads a book, it was concluded that a height of about 200 mm is appropriate.

https://dined.io.tudelft.nl/en

Installation in public spaces

I also considered about where the branch chair could be installed. This is because the product has to match with the existing public facilities.

If pipes or bent plates are used, they can be harmonized with existing installed public facilities. There are billboards and bollards that prevent vehicles from entering near crosswalks and stations where buses or subways come and go. If the Branch chairs are combined with these facilities, users will be able to use the product intuitively.