CHAISE LOUNGE STRUCTURE

Rieser + Umemoto | New York, NY

Designed by RUR, Fabricated with Shane Tafares

Date: Summer 2019

Tasked with bringing to life RUR’s design for a leather chaise lounge chair, I spent a summer researching, prototyping, and fabricating. The first stage of the process involved taking the existing rhino rendering model and redeveloping it for fabrication. I met with designers at Cassina, as well as saddlemakers to determine the type of internal structure that would best support a foam and leather wrap. Using input from these consultants and craftsmen, I chose to employ a plywood waffle structure. Running the model through a grasshopper script made for a seamless process of creating accurate slices for CNC milling. Once the structure was cut and assembled, I chose to use brass sheets and rods to create crisp seams and edges for the leather skin. The metal was brazed together and fastened to the plywood. Autobody filler was used on edges where the compound curve of the form created gaps. The last step in the process was applying stainless steel wire mesh across the surface for extra strength and to prevent the leather from showing the gaps in the waffle structure.