Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Of Science and Chair Design

I was listening to a podcast of Edward Tufte (sp?), a guy who I need to look into a bit more. He mentioned something about Feynman diagrams (I'm spelling that like the physicist?), but am not sure that's right. Anyway, it got me to thinking about my parent's dining room chairs. (Yeah, I have weird synapses.) My parents have a Danish Modern dining room set. It's very nice, kind of sinewy and elegant in it simplicity. Unfortunately, the shairs have, over the half-century plus they've had it, been gradually breaking down. One thing the chairs lack is, any kind of stout bracing. They trade the elegance of style for a lack of sturdiness. They are lovely, but trading beauty for durability isn't a trade I like, or am willing to make. Simply, the lack of bracing means that when stressed, the chairs are more subject to racking, and this tends to tear the joinery apart. I am trying to figure a way to revise their design so they can live in both worlds, retaining the flow and sinew of the Danish design while both adding bracing and beefing up what is there so the chairs can both survive (and since I am unlikely to actually make chairs, this is an exercise in thinking) and keep their beauty.

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