Attache Folding Stool by Chi-Hao Chiang is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2022 A' Design Award in Furniture Design Competition Category.
IronFurniture· 2022
Attache Folding Stool
Client: Chi-Hao Chiang
A' Design Award Winner in Furniture Category
Verified Award Winner
Verify Award Status for #127403The Design
About Attache Folding Stool
Attache, a portable folding stool for your modern life, can easily transform into a small, briefcase-like shape when on the go. At 18" high unfolded, Attache provides a comfortable, upright seat when needed. When in transport, the carrying handle locks into place for increased stability and ease. Attache can benefit both tall and short users to have a friendly experience of carrying and sitting. Also, the folding volume is convenient for users like tenants to move and store frequently, especially in New York City, where the tenants are the majority.
The Recognition
About the A' Design Award
Attache Folding Stool is an Iron A' Design Award winner, a prestigious recognition granted to good designs that meet the professional and industrial requirements expected from well-designed creations. Iron winners demonstrate great skill, high specialization, expert understanding, and creative capacity of their creators. Attache Folding Stool is expected to be a highly regarded, admired, and cherished creation that is practical and innovative. This Iron A' Design Award-winning design integrates industry best practices and has competent technical characteristics linked with know-how and talent. Attache Folding Stool is respected for its thoroughness and is designed to provide quality of life improvements that help make the world a better place.
Interviews
Design Interview
What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?
The main principle is to design a piece of furniture that's friendly for tenants. Thus ideally it should be flat-packed or foldable. Then I got inspiration from various folding furniture in the past about how to define the folding pivots.
What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?
I want to make it as small as possible when folded and have a proper seat height when unfolding. Thus, it can be user-friendly for both carrying and sitting.
What are your future plans for this award winning design?
I would like to research more to modify the design to make it more manufacturing efficient. Also, I believe the form factors can be more consistent.
Behind the Design
Press Kit
Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.
- Unique Properties
- Attache is a portable folding stool that easily transforms into a small, briefcase-like shape when on the go. At 18" high unfolded, Attache provides a comfortable, upright seat when needed. When in transport, the carrying handle locks into place for increased stability and ease. Attache can benefit both tall and short users to have a friendly experience of carrying and sitting. Also, the folding volume is convenient for users like tenants to move and store frequently.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Unfolded, 419.1 mm x 381 mm x 457.2 mm
Folded, 419.1 mm x 495.3 mm x 63.5 mm
Seat, 355.6 mm x 381 mm x 457.2 mm - Tags
- Folding Stool, Furniture, Metal 3D Printing, CNC, Wooden Furniture
- Production Technology
- The main body made of maple was produced through CNC processing and handcraft. After hand drilling the holes for pivots and domino dowels, components were clamped to assemble together with wood glue and dowels. The restricted-angle pivots were produced through steel 3D printing, then installed into the holes.
- Design Challenge
- The most challenging part is designing and defining the angle-restricted pivots and the angle and length of legs to make the folding stool look neat outside and unfold high enough. In the end, the legs were separated into thighs and calfs to achieve the purpose, saving the volume.
- Research
- The initial goal is to design a piece of campaign furniture for tenants, who frequently have to move from place to place. After researching folding furniture, the problems of folding chairs and stools were found to be for users either too tall to carry effortlessly or too short to sit on comfortably. Eventually, with several rounds of iterations, the angle and length of the legs and the pivots were defined precisely to make the stool unfold at the right height and fold in a small volume.
- Inspiration
- Normally, there are some problems while using folding furniture. For folding chairs, it can be folded flatly and the seat height is proper, but it’s too long for people to easily carry, especially those who are short. For folding stools, although it’s easy to carry and go, the seat height is too short for people to sit comfortably, especially those who are tall. The goal of Attache is to create a folding seat that is small enough for carrying and high enough for sitting comfortably.
- Project Duration
- The project started and finished in New York.
- Operation Flow
- Flip the folded seat from the back to the front. Then unfold the front and rear legs to stand independently. In the end, lock the seat to the handle with its notch to transform into a high enough stool for both tall and short users. Attache can benefit tall and short users to both have a friendly experience of carrying and sitting. Also, the folding volume is convenient for users like tenants to move and store frequently, especially in New York City, where the tenants are the majority.
- Image Credits
- Image #1: Photographer Andy Chang, Unfolded, 2019.
Image #2: Photographer Andy Chang, Folded, 2019.
Image #3: Photographer Andy Chang, Unfold Process, 2019.
Image #4: Photographer Andy Chang, Carry, 2019.
Image #5: Photographer Andy Chang, Sit, 2019.
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