Flip Transformační židle by Niko Kapa is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2025 Železná cena A' Design Award in Design nábytku Competition Category.

ŽelezoNábytek· 2025

Flip Transformační židle

by Niko Kapa

Client: Snk

Železná cena A' Design Award Winner in Nábytek Category

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Verified Award Winner
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The Design

About Flip Transformační židle

Se základním principem materiálové zdrženlivosti a čistoty formy kvalita designu vychází z geometrických záhybů a linií, které vytvářejí propojení různých částí, jež všechny slouží funkci. Design umožňuje židli přecházet mezi různými prostředími a reagovat na nálady a potřeby uživatele, protože ji lze přeměnit pouhým převrácením. Nic není bez účelu a jednotlivé prvky spolupracují při vytváření lehké, avšak mimořádně pevné konstrukce.

The Recognition

About the Železná cena A' Design Award

Flip Transformační židle je vítězem Železné ceny A' Design Award, prestižního uznání udělovaného dobrým designům, které splňují profesní a průmyslové požadavky očekávané od dobře navržených výtvorů. Železní vítězové prokazují velké dovednosti, vysokou specializaci, odborné porozumění a tvůrčí kapacitu svých tvůrců. Očekává se, že Flip Transformační židle bude vysoce ceněným, obdivovaným a oblíbeným výtvorem, který je praktický a inovativní. Tento design, který získal Železnou cenu A' Design Award, integruje osvědčené postupy odvětví a má kompetentní technické vlastnosti spojené s know-how a talentem. Flip Transformační židle je vážen pro svou důkladnost a je navržen tak, aby poskytoval zlepšení kvality života, která pomáhají činit svět lepším místem.

Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

Unique Properties: Flexibility and transformation are the fundamental ideas behind this design. The design allows the chair to migrate between different settings and respond to moods and needs of the user, since it can be transformed just by flipping it. This results to different seating postures and designs as per the needs of the user. Besides the alteration, this gives the product a visual consolidation, emphasizing the reduction of materials and unification of forms.
Dimensions & Packaging: Structural stability is attained by the overlapping plywood strips that curve into one another and are glued on connection points. These provide the necessary flexibility that thin layers of plywood offer as a construction material, together with the cushions attached to them. Plywood sheets are spray painted and varnished on all sides. Besides the natural beech wood finish, they come in black and white colored types.
Tags: Transformable, flexible, fluid, plywood, sustainable
Production Technology: The manufacturing process used for the plywood is steam bending which is a low energy, low waste process using no toxic glues, just water. The process of steaming the wood also seasons it at the same as it is bent, using a fraction of the energy required in conventional kiln drying. Having in mind always the use of low environmental impact solutions, plywood is used with low VOC finishes and Bio Shield natural oil finishes, in order to reveal the textural qualities of wood construction.
Design Challenge: With the fluidity of seat and the linearity if strips, the design is suggestive of plant growth. In this way it expresses the spirit of the material it is made of and reveals the textural qualities of wood construction. With an intentionally clear and simple form for this furniture, adaptation to the product philosophy of Dorma Design was taken into account, in order to make this chair complementary of company’s group of furniture and suitable for mass production.
Research: The research focused on how the curve segments can be combined together taking into account physically satisfying posture as well as ergonomics. Full scale mockups were produced in order to check the weight and functionality of the furniture prior to fabrication. Cushions were tested in order to act as an extension of the main framing, having as a basic principle the minimum use of material and minimum number of construction elements.
Inspiration: When you bend a strip of plywood you get an elastic curve. What geometry does this curve follow? The interest in line and movement is expressed through a refined vocabulary, derived from the functional aspects of the design. The main structural elements are strips of plywood that fold in a specific and supplementary manner, in line with proportions of the human body so as to establish the dimensions of the chair.
Operation Flow: Exploring the value of wooden manufacture and the flexible nature of wood as a construction material, the Flip Flop chair is constructed of a series of plywood elements. Fluid linear forms establish a visual rhythm through the graphic lines of the design. This analytical construction logic with curves and crisp lines defines a characteristic profile with a light and elegant effect.
Image Credits: Studio Niko Kapa