A Bend in Time

Furniture Design by Amanda Reesey

Third Year Interior Architecture Student
Marywood University

About the Design

From the beginning of the semester, the goal
for my design has been to design a furniture
piece that combines a minimalistic design
aesthetic with simple and modern elegance.
To accomplish this I used a sequence of
sandblasted metal rods all bent to the same
shape to form a seat that would comfortable
hold one's body. This same design decision was
used in the building of a matching side table to
form one cohesive furniture set.

Inspiring Works
Inspiration was pulled from the works of
designers Bertoia and Platner. Their use of
metal is done in a way that I wanted to follow but
take one step farther. By bending each metal
rod in the same way, my design is one unique
from their works but heavily inspired by their
technique.

Design Process for Chair

The design process was a very long and tedious
experience. In order to reach my goal, there
were many trials and obstacles that needed to
be faced. There was a lot of trial and error in
bending to the angles necessary for the seat. I
had numerous pieces that needed to be either
re-bend or scrapped until I finally was able to
find a more uniform way of matching each of
the angles to one another. Once I found this
technique, I then needed to take the time to
machine and hand bend every single piece.

Digital Representation of Chair

These digital drawings represent my design
from right before I began building. As you can
see, I was successful in making the actual shape
of the chair very close to my original intent.
There were a few changes that needed to be
made due to the availability of tools to assist
in the bending process and some limitations
that I faced because of this. The final design is
cleaner, more crisp, and very functional.

Side Elevation

Back Elevation

Axonometric View

Images of Completed Chair

Design Process for Table

Process work for the side table was much more
simple than that of the chair. Because of all of
the work put into bending the pieces for the
chair, I gained a good understanding of how to
make the metal do what I want it to. I took this
knowledge and designed my table to be a simple
pair to go with the seat. I had a few sketches
of what I wanted to build, and then from there I
experimented with the metal and ended up with
the design I desired. Including a glass tabletop
keeps the design consistent and classy without
intruding on the beauty of the metal.

Digital Representation of Table

In order to get the design I desired, I wanted to
give the illusion that the pieces of the table were
one continuous motion. This was accomplished
by cutting and welding metal rectangular rods
together in a central point so that once the
glass top is applied the connections are nearly
impossible to notice. These drawings show the
construction of the table.

Side Elevation

Plan View

Axonometric View

Images of Completed Table

Completed Set of Furniture

In the heart of every designer is beauty just waiting to be unleashed.