Emilie Allard
Emilie Allard
Living Chair
The past few years saw an outrageous wave of gentrification sweep across many cities in North America, disrupting the housing market and making affordable housing harder and harder to find. In order to keep from being pushed out of the cities, where a large fraction of job opportunities are, a great number of people have resorted to sharing living quarters or renting tiny apartments to make ends meet. Both of the aforementioned options result in lack
of personal space.
People are starting to turn to more minimalistic ways of living in order to accommodate to their new living arrangements. This project takes inspiration from regions where residents have designed solutions to making micro apartments
liveable.
The Living Chair was born out of my fascination for modular furniture. It comes from the idea of living with less and making more of what we have. Its creation explores the design compromises and decisions involved in modularity as well as the balance between practicality and aesthetics.
Made from solid oak, the Living Chair was designed with smaller spaces in mind. It is a chair by day and a bed by night. In a matter of seconds, it opens out into a bed.
The chair was designed to have smooth, pleasant transition between the two positions. Folding and unfolding it are both easy tasks, even for a user to do alone. Simply remove the rods in both arm rests and untie the lowest ribbons of the futon in order to be able to open out the chair into a bed. The Living Chair is then ready to accommodate its owner or a guest for a restful night of sleep.
The Living Chair was also designed for disassembly. This not only reduces its impact on the environment, it also makes it easier to transport and look after.
The futon cover, secured closed by buttons, is attached to the chair with simple ties for ease of washing and transportation. The whole body of the piece is made out of oak and joined together by piano hinges. Only a few tools are needed to disassemble it and get it ready for its next destination.
