Futuretense Chair – Jebreel Bessiso

Digital Craft Option Studio | 2024

Develop a methodology and set of procedures for the translation and execution of an innovative design into the physical form of a chair.

Futuretense is a new language of structural design and its resultant aesthetics, emerging from seeking a material and structural alternative to wood that is more quickly cultivable and inspired by the fiber fabrication processes of the livMatS Pavilion. The Futuretense Chair explores the novel forms, functions, and assemblies that utilizing fabric threads as structural members enables via the medium of twill tape, a material made of cotton which has no compressive strength but some tensile strength. The twill tape is woven around a loom, and as more layers of thread are woven tightly across previous layers, the older layers are stretched, making them work in tension and effectively creating a minimal surface. Resin is applied, causing the thread to continue to act in tension even under compressive forces as the resin itself aids in handling compressive forces. This results in chair legs that are remarkably light–just under 11 ounces (311.8 grams) in weight each–but that together can hold at least 150 pounds (68 kilograms).

*Conceptual diagram showing the design intent of the chair.*

The woven fiber-resin composite is rigid and strong when dealing with in-plane forces but more flexible when dealing with out of plane forces. Therefore, the legs of the chair are woven as columns, while the backrest is woven as a curving surface parallel to the seated person’s back, moving with the body as it pushes against it. The legs and backrest are connected to each other via a CNC-milled wooden seat, while the legs are woven across a primarily 3D-printed loom that attaches itself to the bottom of the seat.

*The patterns of weaving and how those are sequenced to weave the form of one leg of the chair.*

To make a structurally efficient column or leg from this woven composite material, there should first be a generous amount of vertical fibers, moving from the first hole of one part of the loom to the corresponding first part of the other, and so forth. As the weaving continues, the fiber steps from the bottom portion of the loom to the top of the loop in a more diagonal fashion, resulting in elements that wrap around the previous elements with increasing tightness. These diagonal elements give the overall form its tensile strength and causes the form to curve inward in the middle, resembling an hourglass shape.

*Diagram depicting the process of crafting the chair from start to finish.*

The holes in the loom and the chair’s seat are designed in a manner such that they hide the thread wrapping around the loom when viewed from the side, creating a more refined appearance. The two parts of the loom are hidden again, the top portion by pockets in the underside of the wooden seat, and the bottom portion by an additional 3D printed cap that it slots into. The backrest uses a slightly different weaving strategy where the bottom is woven across hidden holes in the wooden while but the top part of the loom is made using screws attached to a wooden scaffold. This allows the loom to be completely removed, leaving just the fabric form of the backrest behind and eliminating the need for another material to cap the backrest.

*Chair Leg and Overall Chair Dimensions*

*Various study models with different kinds of threads and resins were tested. The image on the bottom-right is the loom used to weave the backrest of the chair.*

Renders

The chair can be woven out of any reasonably strong fiber, such as jute, hemp, and flax, and the resulting chair would have a different, unique appearance. Patterns could also change subtly between chairs to meet aesthetic goals while maintaining the structural rigidity of the leg and backrest.
The Futuretense Chair is currently conceived as a dining chair, but the same fabrication process could be used to make a variety of kinds of chairs, as well as structural members for use in the architecture, engineering, and construction industries, such as columns and beams.

Photographs

The dense geometric, overlayed patterns creates an aesthetic effect unique to this material and fabrication process, one that is further emphasized under direct light. The patterns also recall organic forms, as does the muscle or bone-like curvature of the legs resulting from the tension generated during the fabrication process. This organic appearance was not a shallow mimicry of patterns and forms found in nature but inevitably resulted from an application of structurally efficient design principles to the chair. This is the aesthetic language of Futuretense.