Sempoa Cathedra Otii by New Elegant Co., Ltd. is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2025 Praemium A' Design Award Argenteum in Designatio Supellectilis Competition Category.
ArgentumSupellex· 2025
Sempoa Cathedra Otii
Client: New Elegant Co., Ltd.
Praemium A' Design Award Argenteum Winner in Supellex Category
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- Verified Award Winner
- Verify Award Status for #164649
The Design
About Sempoa Cathedra Otii
Cathedra Sempoa inspirationem traditionalem cum utilitate moderna coniungit. Ab abaco Soroban Iaponico inspirata, dorsum gerit globulos mobiles qui et tactum et effectum leniter fricandi praebent. Globuli, in virgis chalybeis positi et a structuris ligneis flexibilibus curvatis retenti, cum corpore utentis moventur. E tabulis ligneis solidis intersecantibus confecta, forma ordinata cum firmitate libratur, stabilitatem, elegantiam et invitantem commercium cum utente confirmans.
The Recognition
About the Praemium A' Design Award Argenteum
Sempoa Cathedra Otii victor est Praemii A' Design Award Argenteum, honoris eximie amplissimi formis summi generis, pulchris et conspicuis dati. Victores Argenti opera valde splendida et creandi ingenio praedita sunt, quae praestantem peritiam, talentum et acumen auctorum suorum ostendunt. Exspectatur Sempoa Cathedra Otii opus mirabile, exemplare, valde professionale et penitus novum fore. Haec forma Argento victa inventum notabile et admiratum est, quod ad fines artis, scientiae, formandi rationis et technologiae promovendos confert. Sempoa Cathedra Otii creatio est, quam multi invident, quae cupiditates excitat, sensus bonos affert et admirationem miraculumque movet.
Behind the Design
Press Kit
Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.
- Unique Properties
- For a long period of time, Abacus has been an important part of life of businessman, employees, even students. This simple yet useful hand operated tool becomes a symbol of hardworking people. In modern days, where digital calculator has been embedded inside our most important tool-smartphone, an abacus is slowly being forgotten. An idea emerges repurposing an abacus in our daily life as a reminder of our hard works while still physically functional giving relaxation massage sensation for the user.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Width: 720 mm
Depth: 820 mm
Height: 800 mm
Seat Height: 440 mm
Seat Depth: 510 mm - Tags
- Chair, Life, Work, Massage, Abacus, Wood, Joinery
- Production Technology
- The expectation to create the most favorite piece of furniture in our living room, build quality is the priority allowing the user to rely on it for decades. With that mindset, straight solid rubberwood is decided for its well-known balance between strength, lightweight and cost. The curved shapes are realized from a bentwood forming the backrest and seat frames that wraps around the user’s body. The large area of the seat allows the user to sit cross-legged, thus velvet fabric is chosen to give a gentle touch to the skin, maximizing comforts.
- Design Challenge
- From the beginning of research, blending an abacus in a piece of furniture, the inorganic shape of the abacus reduces the possibility of the chair shape exploration. As ergonomic is a crucial part in designing a chair, the shape cannot be too rigid but on the other hand it becomes irrelevant to the abacus if the chair is too organic. Second hurdle is finding the balance thickness of the bentwood rails of the abacus. It must be thin enough to flex, yet strong enough to support the user’s body while holding all the stainless-steel rods. The frame also required to have spaces for the rails to slide smoothly without affecting the overall rigidity.
- Research
- Creating a product that will be cherished by the user is the wish of all designers and producers. Providing a solution in the product that also connects to the user’s heart, the research focused on blending the historical elements of abacus as an aesthetic feature and a concrete function of the whole product. Thus, by reinventing abacus as a flexible backrest, not only it acts as a piece of art in the living room, but also provides a soothing massage effect for the user. It combines a cultural element with practical benefits, creating a chair that feels both familiar and innovative.
- Inspiration
- In this era, most of our daily activity is sitting. Either it is working, meeting, eating or even relaxing. Twelve hours on average sitting on the same spot happened to many people especially those who works from their home. Inspired by wooden massage lumbar support used by many taxi drivers in Vietnam, the idea is to implement wooden massage beads built into a lounge chair for people who works tirelessly and relax infinitely in front of screens all day long.
- Project Duration
- The project was designed and developed in Ho Chi Minh from August 2023 until August 2024.
- Operation Flow
- Crafting Sempoa chair focused on touches between users’ body and the edges of the beads. Knowing the fact that responses to sharp edges are different for every person, the rails of the abacus are made of flexible thin bentwood to be able to adapt to the user’s rear body shape. The stainless-steel rods act as the bones of the bentwood rails giving strength to support the user’s weight. Not only that, the abacus horizontal direction combined with the stainless steel rods, permit the beads to slide and spin freely, allowing the user to move around unbound while sitting.
- Team Members
- Director: Wei-Liang Chou
Designer: Aditya Cipta Sugandha - Image Credits
- Aditya Cipta Sugandha, 2024.
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