Modern Chinese 扶手椅 by Jonathan Nieh is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2022 A' Design Award 银奖 in 家具设计 Competition Category.

银家具· 2022

Modern Chinese 扶手椅

by Jonathan Nieh

Client: Niehworks

A' Design Award 银奖 Winner in 家具 Category

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The Design

About Modern Chinese 扶手椅

《现代中式》是一款既可供坐卧、又适合作为艺术品陈列的扶手椅。其造型借鉴了中国传统扶手椅与马塞尔·布劳耶(Marcel Breuer)设计的B33号椅。通过CNC数控加工,胶合板与实心胡桃木被塑造成流畅无缝的轮廓,取代了传统制作工艺中的棱角部件与木工榫接。木材的结构与强度经过精确计算,足以承托人体重量。设计初期曾研究采用金属管框架,但最终选择木材,因其外观更显温润。

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award 银奖

Modern Chinese 扶手椅是 A' Design Award 银奖得主，这是授予顶级、华美而令人印象深刻的设计的极为崇高的认可。银奖得主是极其卓越、极具创造力的作品，展现出其设计师杰出的专业技能、才华与敏锐。预计Modern Chinese 扶手椅将成为一件出色的典范之作，兼具非凡的专业性与深刻的创新性。这件赢得 A' Design Award 银奖的设计是一项备受瞩目、令人钦佩的发明，造福并拓展艺术、科学、设计和技术的边界。Modern Chinese 扶手椅是一件令人羡慕的创作，它唤起渴望，带来积极的情感，并激发惊叹与赞叹。

Behind the Design

Press Kit

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

Unique Properties: The overall concept is to borrow the shape of traditoinal Chinese armchair and fused with current technology and material such as CNC processing and plywood to create a modern and organic looking Chinese style furniture.
Dimensions & Packaging: Width 765mm x Depth 650mm x Height 800mm
Seat Height 420mm
Tags: chair, furniture, minimalism, simplicity, creative, oriental, Chinese, design, artistic, beautiful
Production Technology: CNC Processing,
Plywood, solid wood(walnut)
Design Challenge: The most challenging part of this chair concept is to design proper structure and calculate wood strength enable to support people's weight. The original idea was to use metal tube and bending technique to create the chair structure, but the finish appearance looks too cold and contemporary, therefore, the material was switched from metal back to wood.
Research: For this project the idea/design was just pop into my head when I was reading a book called "Encyclopedia of China Traditional Furniture Making and Appreciation" Therefore, it is difficult to position this chair as a design piece or an art work.
Inspiration: Modern Chinese Armchair was inspired by traditional Chinese armchair and Marcel Breuer's No. B33 chair design. The original motive was not to simplified a traditional Chinese armchair into a modern looking one, but to borrowed the design from the past and infused with present technology and material to expand a new style of Chinese furniture.
Project Duration: The project started in March 2021 in Taipei, Taiwan and minor changes are undergoing
Operation Flow: Modern Chinese Armchair is mainly for sitting purpose but can also be viewed as piece of art work.