Song 宋
Desk & stool
A desk and stool drawn from Song-dynasty temple structure. I took the arches, the segmented members and the carved rhythm into parametric layouts, then built them in pine, plywood, galvanized steel, acrylic and leather. Shown at Yodex, Taipei.
Form reference system
I pulled the temple motifs into a reference library, arches, segmented members, fillets, and sketched each alone before combining them at furniture scale. Present without being literal: anyone who knows Song architecture sees the source, everyone else sees a desk.
Prototyping and testing
Full-scale mockups in PVC, MDF and plywood. Testing with people showed the seat sat too upright and the base flexed sideways, so I corrected both in the parametric layouts.
Production and assembly
Partner shops bent the galvanized frames to the parametric curves and CNC-cut the pine and plywood. I assembled in-house: tolerances tuned where steel meets wood, pine sanded smooth, acrylic laser-cut, leather stitched.
Specifications
Desk: L110 × W76 × H65 cm · pine, galvanized steel, acrylic. Stool: W45 × D39 × H50 cm · plywood, galvanized steel, cotton, leather. Yodex design exhibition · Taipei, Taiwan · 2017 to 2018
Gallery
- Challenges1/2
Early assemblies creaked where steel met plywood, so I reinforced those joints with extra hardware and adhesive. The seat and back angles took several rounds of testing before they felt right.
- Insights2/2
The temple is in the frame and the joints, not carved onto the surface, which is why it survives at desk scale. I should have sat people down at the mockups sooner.
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