Recycled Flatpack Chair

Common household furniture often has a very complex manufacturing process and is difficult to recycle. Sustainable, low-cost seating is hard to achieve without sacrificing structural integrity. The challenge was to create a functional chair using one material that could support the weight of an adult.

This project was limited to the use of corrugated cardboard, with no use of adhesives or fasteners. All stability had to come from the design choices and the cardboard's strengths. The objective was to engineer and full scale concept that is structurally sound. Proving that an everyday material such as cardboard can be turned into something much stronger with a few meaningful design choices.

My initial inspiration for the chair design came from popular “brutalistic” design elements. Once I had my initial design in mind, I moved to SolidWorks to construct a template with precise measurements based on anthropometric data to ensure the comfort of the chair.

A quarter-scale model was constructed to test on a press to identify design failures. I was able to determine two points where the material would flex that would eventually fail in the full-scale model. This led me to change from two to four wrap-around pieces.

Using a laser cutter, I was able to cut out precise pieces to assemble the full-scale model. These near-zero clearance joints allowed for maximum strength.