Dornob | Design Ideas Daily

Superfoam Seat Cast Around Blown-Up & Popped Balloons

Posted: 14 Aug 2012 04:00 PM PDT

[ Filed under Furniture & in the Chairs category ]

Design and craft can be as much (or more) about process as product – certainly the case for this odd hand-crafted chair that owes its shape to a confluence of strange structural circumstances.

Created by Rich Gilbert as an experiment in casting solids around spherical voids (formed by everyday plastic balloons), the result has both solidity and flexibility reflective of its method of making.

“An experiment in redesigning natural structures. SuperFoam is a re-creation of naturally occurring reticulated foam structures through a casting process that facilitates designing the properties of the foam itself.”

“By developing the casting process the properties of the foam could be controlled so the chair flexed and deformed to create a supportive structure.”