Iron Furniture Design · 2022
Attache Folding Stool
- A' Design Award 2022 Iron Winner in Furniture Design
- Awarded April 15, 2022
- CLIENT: Chi-Hao Chiang
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 14,699
- Verification code D315D16D9A · Verify this award
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.
Press Kit
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Colors of Attache Folding Stool
Design Interview about Attache Folding Stool
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.
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.
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.
This is a semester-long project. It's about 12 to 14 weeks.
I decided to pursue to challenge myself by designing a piece of folding furniture with my background in mechanical engineering.
Not yet. However, I would like to lease the rights if there is an opportunity.
I think it's because I realized I might be able to take the knowledge of mechanical engineering to solve the problem that tenants feel hassled when dealing with bulky furniture.
It would be my classmates who were in the same studio course. They did help a lot with inspiration while we were chatting casually.
It's the tenants who live in a relatively small places in big cities like New York.
I think it's the feature that how small it can be while folded and can also achieve a normal seat height while unfolding.
The inspiration came from a briefcase. That's what I want the users to feel while carrying it, as small as a briefcase.
I used rapid prototyping by using existing materials and fine-tune the mechanism with 3D printing. In the end, I used CNC to help make the final model.
I think it's the pivot design. The male and female can interlock with each other at a certain angle to provide strength to bear the users' weight.
I found a company that helped me produce metal 3D-printed pivot components for my final model. This was helpful as I couldn't afford the cost of molding.
I think it's CNC machining and metal 3D printing. These were both very helpful to finish the final model.
Unfortunately, it isn't for this particular project.
It was to find a way to bear enough weight but also stay simple in appearance. I did a lot of calculations to find the correct angles and dimensions.
I would like to see other professional designers' opinions about this design that I am satisfied with what I fulfilled.
I got more understanding about doing precise modeling in CAD software and operating a CNC machine. Also, I realized I can integrate my mechanical engineering background with design better
No, thank you so much.