A Chair for Stanley Kubrick

A Chair for Stanley Kubrick

Wesley Chu | 20438269 Leo Liu | 20437786 ARCH 365 Structures Design/Build Workshop December 15, 2014

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INTRO & MANIFESTO

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PRECEDENTS & RESEARCH

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DESIGN PHILOSOPHY & INTENT

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BUILD PROCESS & CONSTRUCTION

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SITTING EXPERIENCE & REVIEW

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STRUCTURAL SYSTEM & ANALYSIS

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FINAL WORDS & THOUGHTS

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INDEX & EPILOGUE

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“You’re wearing a peace sign, yet your helmet says BORN TO KILL. What is that, some kind of sick joke?”

–

Full Metal Jacket

Photographer, director, cinematographer, screenwriter, producer, visionary, would be apt descriptions for Stanley Kubrick. But above all, he was a storyteller, and a highly adaptable and versatile one at that. From comedy, war, historical drama, to period epic, horror, psychological thriller, and science-fiction, Kubrick could masterfully tell a story of any genre, Kubrick also never made a sequel, as each of his works were quintessentially complete and well thought out.

Since his 1957 film “Paths of Glory” (and also the first of which he became well-known for), all of his screenplays were adapted from other works by other authors or artists. He was not known for his originality in the conception of an idea, but rather his expression of it. He told a known story in a completely different and exciting way, and that is what made him great. He told you how to think and feel when watching the film unfold.

The chair is a story that has been told countless times. So how would a chair for Kubrick tell that story differently? How can sitting can be expressed or communicated? That is the question that we set out to answer.

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Kubrick had a strong interest in the study of human nature and the dark areas of the human psyche, an originally Jungian idea which observes and attempts to understand the seemingly polar opposite actions and thoughts that people experience or commit. This yin-yang conflict greatly interested Kubrick, and wove it in as a major theme in almost all of his films along with an inhumane coldness that grips his characters. Kubrick himself was known to be very private and closed, rarely giving interviews or talking to the public.

In his magnum opus, “2001: A Space Odyssey”, Kubrick reserves a large portion of the movie to a visual essay about a human’s experience in a given space and our relationship with the shapes around us. At the time, the special effects featured in the film were groundbreaking, and still hold up today. Kubrick was awarded an Oscar for visual effects (interestingly, the only Oscar he ever won).

Lastly, Kubrick was an artist who could utilize his tools to communicate his story exactly the way he had envisioned. While simplicity has never been synonymous with the ideologies in his films, it could not better describe his methods. A key concept for our chair will be to “communicate a complex idea, through simple execution.”

What follows in this booklet is our process through the design and building of a chair for Stanley Kubrick.

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STANLEY WHO?

Kubrick sneaks a shot if himself and his daughter Vivian, ignoring a posed Jack Nicholson on the set of The Shining.

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Kubrick with his very first camera at age 13.

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HOW TO MAKE A CHAIR FOR STANLEY KUBRICK 2. Take two unique, yet simple shapes and overlap them into the cube.

1. Make a simple cube, solid and heavy like a brick. A cube-brick. (Get it?)

3. Remove all that overlaps.

Now a chair with unique, catered seating has been created.

Early concept sketches show mirrored sitting positions, which were later changed.

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4. Build sketch models and prototypes

Sketch Model 1

This first sketch model attempted to form its shape through a conventional (and boring) four corner post frame system.

The second prototype features the ribbed profiles to achieve its shape. This was the final iteration used in the end product.

Sketch Model 2

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BUILDING BUY: 3x 4x 1x

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50”x50” Birch Plywood 50”x50” 1.5mm Aircraft Birch Ply Small Box of screws

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The Home Depot A&M Wood Specialties The Home Depot

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$120 $270 $5 $395

These members hold the load in the axis of position 1:

475.00 19.50475.00 19.50 636.49 636.49

A

378.08 378.08

290.93 290.93 378.08 419.82 378.08 419.82

325.00 325.00

419.81 419.81

207.00 206.00 207.00 206.00

636.49 636.49

650.00 650.00

B

C

650.00 650.00

D

These members hold the load in the axis of position 2: 62.38 62.38

639.00 639.00

E

631.00 631.00

F

291.12 291.12

361.40 361.40 291.12 291.12

291.12 650.00291.12 650.00

150.00 150.00

631.00 631.00

60.54 514.24 60.54 514.24 291.12 291.12

650.00 102.23 102.23 26.83 650.00 26.83 434.54 434.54

428.46 428.46 325.00 325.00

104.06 104.06

639.00 639.00

G

Use the CNC Router to cut the plywood into the dimensions above.

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H

H E

C F

A

B

D G

Phase 1 Assembly

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J Lay in the aircraft ply and screw it down to the respective members.

I

Glue and clamp a second layer of ply down. Repeat on both sides, sanding down the edges to be flush with the member.

Cut the last remaining cap pieces out and glue them on accordingly.

K

O

Q

R

Phase 2 Assembly 12

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Kubrick`s fascination with chess followed him to work, as he often played chess against the crew while filming on set in between takes. Pictured above is a photograph from the set of Dr. Strangelove in 1963, of a game against George C. Scott.

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“Your hand trembles to pick up the piece and move it.

What chess teaches you is that you must sit there calmly and think about whether it's really a good idea and whether there are other, better ideas.�

- Stanley Kubrick

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Side 1 - Left & Right

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Side 2 - Big & Small

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A child, skinny person, or pet is told they can sit left. A large adult or pregnant woman is told that they are restricted to only sitting on the right.

The tight seating orients you straight in one perspective, the way you should watch a film.

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A simple case of righties vs. lefties. Which side do you want your armrest/surface on?

No one said it was comfortable. Watching a Kubrick film is uncomfortable.

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Structure

The structure of our chair is composed of a series of flat profiles that fit together by interlocking slits that forms a grid system.

We have chosen this structural design due to the inherent structural ability of a grid that allows an even distribution of force throughout the chair. This allows the chair to hold its structure whether it is placed one way or another, which is important as the design aspect of our chair allows the user to sit in a variety of ways by turning the chair upside down or right side up. The grid system also allows multiple anchoring points to attach the exterior panels as well as the curved plywood seating.

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On the profiles themselves, the structural loss from cutting out holes to provide the actual seating placements is offset by the fact that the cut outs form an arch in the resulting profile, which is a naturally strong compression structure. The way we have designed the structure allows an arch profile to support the compression load from either orientation, with the grid interlocking system and the exterior panels creating the lateral resistance.

In terms of manufacturing, the design is very efficient. Since it is composed entirely of profiles, the chair can be manufactured from only plywood. This efficiency ultimately cuts down on cost due to the ease of material acquisition and transportation, as well as the ability of mass fabrication.

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Free Body Diagrams - Solving The only common loads on the chair (considering we are disregarding self-weight) would be from the person sitting on it, with a slight bias facing backwards. The anticipated reaction would come from the members below that are touching the floor, pushing up from the floor. There would also be a horizontal force acting against the applied horizontal 0.5 KN.

Position 1

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Position 2

Critical Section - Solving

We believe that this is the critical section due to the load of the sitter being right on that member. Given the rigid and even grid-form, the strength of each individual member to join is relatively even (same distances between joints, same thickness and materiality of structure). This means that wherever there is extra force should be the weakest, therefore where the load rests.

As calculated, our chair is not adequate at the critical section. However this is assuming that the human is a point load as calculated and instructed. In a realistic application, the human load would be more distributed, leading to some of the load being directly over other structural members.

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One order of chair to Mr. Stanley Kubrick is complete.

But like any project, it is never truly over. There are improvements, reflections, and post-creation thoughts that we have.

Leo had a genius moment when he came up with the outer board connections that worked perfectly with our idea, within time, and budget with CNC routing. We were glad the final form was very solid and physically felt the way we had in mind.

However, the chair ended up costing three times what it could have, if only we had spec’d the dimensions to be 30mm shorter in length. This would require us to buy half the amount of aircraft ply that ended up costing two-thirds of the total cost. The same went for the main structural plywood as well. Lesson learned.

Another way, the aircraft ply bending process was incredibly painful and had to be redone over 7 times and took several hours just to place properly. Curving wood in two axes is not recommended, so unless this were to go to mass production where machines would be doing that heavy lifting, it would be a no-go (straight tubes only).

That extra money we could have saved could have went to purchasing nice veneer from A&M, which would effortlessly disguise our entire bruised and dirty box as a clean, monolithic geometric form. That would achieve the aesthetic we were originally after, but were forced to abandon due to budgetary constraints.

But we have to say, we still had a lot of fun making the chair, and we learned a lot. Special thank you to Dan, Heinz, Wes, Christian, Mark, and Dave for their help.

Until the next chair...

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As seen in Full Metal Jacket.

As seen in A Clockwork Orange.

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As seen in The Shining.

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As seen in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

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Thank you for reading about a chair for Stanley Kubrick.

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