the careers of three rmit university students have been given a kick-start with the trio awarded the australian furniture of the year student design award for victoria and tasmania for a portable chair with a clam shell look and function.
lead designer of the chair, ben brayshaw, says the project was created with a brief for furniture that would still be in style five years from now before the idea for the clam shell design came up.
“having timber as a starting point… we basically came up with a segmented chair… then when we went to the prototyping we found that it fell so nicely into a closed shell,” he says. “once we got the concept – basically a segmented shape folded onto itself – then the kind of look of the clam came to mind and i altered it to mimic that.”
featuring 19 small cushions and made from american walnut veneered hoop pine, plywood, flexible pvc and woolen felt upholstery, the clam shell chair has not only caught the attention of the awards judges but also the moonlight cinema in perth.
brayshaw says this is the kind of thing the chair is perfect for but given its inspiration it would also be perfect for the beach.
“being [made of] timber was limiting the application to the beach because the environment, the saltiness, the uv and everything from the beach would ruin the chair overtime so if we were to develop it – which we’re trying to do at the moment – definitely a beach application or festival – music festivals or food and wine festivals – i think would be perfect. just for people to carry around wherever they feel like sitting down, find a bit of grass or a flat surface somewhere and just sit in it,” he explains.
the award win has been inspirational for brayshaw who says there are many possibilities for further development of the clam shell chair from a kids’ version to a model for older people.
he believes the chair would best suit retailers with design oriented stores.
“we’d probably have to start off with somewhere which has more quirky furniture and where more open people would go to see new designs and then from there we’d probably refine it down then work our way to selected stores when we’ve got more of a client in mind.”
