FURNITURE SYSTEM
Research project, Siracusa, Italy, 2008

Principals: Aleksandra Jaeschke, Andrea Di Stefano | Design team: Paolo Tringali, Salvo Pappalardo | Photos: Salvo Pappalardo



Wave Spring is a prototype of a furniture system exploring the intimate relationship between materials, their performance, anticipated function and emerging form.
Sheets of layered and curved plies of wood of varying thicknesses and dimensions are analysed to determine stresses when subjected to particular deformations and strategically constrained to specific form. The system behaves like a wave spring, an elastic object which stores mechanical energy due to specific constraints. It is further tested to reach balance between required rigidity and intrinsic flexibility that allows the material to organize following curved geometries and it is eventually optimised to calibrate shelf size in function of load bearing capacity. The final form is the result of integration of material robustness, structural performance and functional potential.
The first piece of furniture, a reconfigurable exhibition table for a fashion shop, is developed and custom built in 1:1 scale. Further applications are suggested in a system of interconnected sheets generating the entire space of a studio flat in which functional requirements that normally define the form and distribution of discrete pieces of furniture determine the arrangement and dimensions of a continuous functional landscape made out of plywood strips.