Aeriform Armchair

The Aeriform Armchair was born from a desire to capture the quiet grace of bird wings, unfolding mid-flight. I imagined a form that could feel like an embrace, soft yet powerful, sculptural yet inviting. Designed entirely in virtual reality, I sculpted it as if drawing with ribbon in the air, free from gravity and constraints.

I was also heavily influenced by Pierre Paulin’s Ribbon Chair, and I aimed to build on that legacy by designing something even more bold and imposing. But aesthetics weren’t everything—I went through several physical prototypes and ergonomic jigs to make sure the chair was actually comfortable in real use. I wanted it to be both a centerpiece and a genuinely functional seat.

With this design, my main focus was to create a seamless blend of sculptural elegance and genuine comfort. I wanted the Aeriform Armchair to feel like a statement. Bold, confident, and eye-catching, yet also be the kind of chair you could sink into for hours without a second thought.

Too often, showpieces sacrifice usability for aesthetics. I didn’t want that. I set out to prove that an iconic form can still offer an inviting, ergonomic experience. The goal was to strike that elusive balance: a chair that dominates a room without demanding constant attention, that looks like art but functions like a daily essential.

My goal is to bring the Aeriform Armchair into the real world. Not just as a prototype or concept, but as a product available to those who appreciate bold, sculptural design. I’m currently looking for a luxury furniture manufacturer who sees its potential and shares the ambition to develop a production-ready version together.

There are still things I wasn’t able to fully realize on my own, like wrapping it in high-quality leather or crafting a cast chromed base, but with the right partner, I believe we can elevate it to its full potential. My hope is for the Aeriform to find its place among the icons: to be mentioned in the same breath as the Egg Chair, the Ribbon Chair, or the Papa Bear. I know it’s an ambitious goal, but I believe in the design, and I believe there’s a place for it in the canon of timeless furniture.

I had experimented with virtual reality design before, but never on something that would eventually become a fully realized physical product. So in many ways, this was new ground for me. I wanted to tie the virtual and physical worlds together in a way that felt natural, so I built an adjustable jig in real life that I could sit in and measure from. I then traced that jig in VR to use as a reference to keep the scale, ergonomics, and seating posture consistent with what a person would experience. With every iteration, I would sit in the jig, position the model exactly where it was and look around in VR, imagining how the chair would feel around me.At first, I tried sketching some bold concepts on paper and recreating them in VR, but they didn’t quite translate. The lines I liked on paper didn’t feel right in 3D space. So I flipped the process. Instead of translating sketches, I started sketching freehand directly in VR. The organic quality of modeling in virtual space felt just right. Shapes felt more sculptural and alive. One of the early sketches came from simply manipulating a flat plane between my hands, bending it like a ribbon suspended in air. That moment led to the core visual language of the armchair.From there, I refined the Sub-D surfaces until I had a volume that not only looked bold but also supported the human body well. I still used planar views on paper to cross-check and refine details, but most of the shaping happened in VR. Toward the end of the process, I paid a lot of attention to surfacing details using zebra mapping and reflection tests to refine the curves to a level that felt natural and perfected. It was a process of constant iteration, but VR gave me the creative freedom to sculpt the form in a way that traditional tools never could.

I admire the aesthetics of Pierre Paulin’s Ribbon Chair, and with the Aeriform Armchair, I wanted to pay homage to that classic while creating something distinctly my own. One of my main goals was to design a chair that’s not just sculptural but truly comfortable. Something you could sit in for hours, whether you're reading, relaxing, or scrolling on your phone.In my observations and design lectures, I learned that seating is inherently dynamic. We shift positions constantly, so I knew I wanted to create something that supports movement. My early sketches tried to blend the posture of upright seating with the laid back ergonomics of a lounge chair. That didn’t quite work as I envisioned, but it led me to realize how often I sit sideways in chairs. So I made that a central feature.This is where the influence of bird wings came in. I imagined large sweeping forms that would gently envelop the sitter, creating a sense of both security and privacy, while offering support for the back and head when sitting sideways. My initial drawings leaned more literally into wings and even had feather motifs, but as the design evolved, I stripped those elements back and embraced a purer, smoother form. The aerodynamic qualities remained as a subtle nod now visible in the cross sections - hence the name Aeriform.

Yes, traditional anthropometric studies mostly treat sitting as a two dimensional problem by measuring backrest angles, seat depth, and so on. But that approach feels inherently flawed. Humans are built to move. Even the most “ergonomic” position becomes uncomfortable when you’re forced to hold it for too long. Static sitting leads to fatigue, stiffness and poor circulation. It doesn’t reflect how we actually use furniture.During my research, I came across only one book that acknowledged this and tried to go beyond the static model. It introduced the idea of sitting as a dynamic, time based experience, so more like four dimensions: X, Y, Z, and time. It also provided valuable information about cushioning and how materials affect long term comfort. But when it came to supporting varied seating positions, it still fell short.That’s why I built my testing jig. It was a simple frame of two standing panels with a grid of holes, steel pipes and adjustable seat and backrest panels which attach to the pipes. This allowed me to test a wide range of angles and heights in real life. I mapped out the primary upright position as well as more relaxed, sideways poses for secondary position. I tested it on myself and others, took measurements, averaged to be able to fit more people, and then translated those measurements into virtual reality. Essentially, I created a kind of ergonomic skeleton inside VR that I could sculpt around. And it worked beautifully.