New designers 09: graduate designer Charlotte Kingsnorth presented a sofa inspired by obesity at New Designers in London earlier this month.
The bulging, pink velvet upholstery engulfs its timber frame and is wrapped in latex sheeting.
“At One is a sofa which has been devoured by its obese occupier,” says Kingsnorth. “It tells a story of a relationship between a person and their sofa and the evolution of their bond through time spent sitting together.”
She designed the seat while studying at Bucks New University in the UK and was awarded a yellow pencil in the D&AD Student Awards 2008 for an early model, produced in response to the brief to design a sofa for the Vitra Editions range.
See all our stories from New Designers in our special category.
eueeuw yak
gross
I really love the idea of subtraction to reveal this particular seat. Those ideas could be used in a less grotesque way and make something that does not look like meat rotting off of a skeleton
omg i love it. i know exactly where to put it and who should sit on it at my house!
design trick # 33 from the book of
“how to make design these days”
take a disease, disorder or anything human and apply it to furniture.
examples siamese twins , anorexia obesity…etc etc.
It looks like something died on a chair skeleton. It’s kind of surreal (i love surrealism, but it’s not something i would want in my house)
What a fantastic object. I wish I didn’t know what the inspiration was, though, I just think it’s an excellent deconstro approach to upholstery.
It worked… as here and eat a salad I actually felt a little ill when I first saw the image. Before I even read about the inspiration, the couch physically effected me.
“At One is a sofa which has been devoured by its obese occupier…”
Because we all know those obese people will eat anything and everything, even their own furniture. I’d like to think design was thoughtful enough (or at least novel enough) to avoid stereotyped exaggerations. If a designer’s going to purposefully wade into that crusted-over slurry pool of rubber chickens and comedians wearing hilarious suspenders, they should at least wade back out with something new and interesting.
The object works fine on its own. I really like it. But that design statement takes an attractive object and reduces it to little more than a thirteen year-old’s idea of a good joke.
awesome!!
LOL – I love it. Yes furniture for fat fucks. Lovely.
look.. it’s me on summer break
WOW!
Looks like a cross between a recliner and a tardigrade.
looks like an accident between a dead pig and a clothes horse
This is brilliant. How rare it is to see a chair that’s truly unique. Shocking and inviting at the same time. Nice execution of the concept. Look forward to more work Charlotte!
wouldn’t ever put it in my house. but I love it nonetheless.
This looks like an ugly fat lady that fell asleep while taking a ‘sun bath’ and then melted.
Parece que uma vaca gigante largou um cagalhão numa cadeira.
Thumbs up!
Looked pretty cool before finding out it represents fat melting into a chair.
It’s little…grotesque, but unique!
reminds me of a corpse. i think it suppose to be one one a nice frame. it still looks disgusting.
i love it!!!!
nice one!
reminds me of Tjep’s 2005 XXL chair, which I think tackels the problem of fatness even better, it can’t even support itself any longer.
http://www.tjep.com/things/xxlchair/index.html
it is emissioning some kind of negative energy looking like ill man, but the design is ok…
ugly and disgusting..then well done.
wooow
i like it
alien style
so live,,gross but i could imagine it in my livingroom
like in Saville's paintings, this piece is about the beauty that can be exuded from bulging flesh, not a statement against obesity.
Funny that you should say that, I emailed this link to a friend with the subject "if Jenny Saville made furniture…"
I love it.
Such an interesting concept. I’d name it “The Couch Potato”.
The explanation from the designer seems quite silly and a bit post rationalisation-esque to me!! Why does it need to be justified? It is really cool in my opinion!!
It looks more like that well known giant baseball glove chair, but one that has been so well worn that it has eroded away…
I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s interesting. I wonder if it’s comfortable
a wonderful and powerful visual and philosophical statement…………..
very thoughtful and moving!
it IS beautiful!
I love it!!
(the number and range of the comments above are a testament to it’s power)
Nothing like Tjep!
From the movie 300, I spy a remarkable likeness…but I am not sure?
http://www.shaunsmithfx.com/images/gallery/300/large/fat-guy.jpg
Looks like cancer !!!
never been a fan of Ross Lovegrove with his super slim things, but this ugly fat ….*
whatever it is, makes me become one instantly
*self censored by author
soooo goood
i really want one
Interesting as means of self-expression or even therapy. Can you imagine this mass-produced, though? In terms of execution, it would be a nightmare – material wastage, technical specifications… In terms of aesthetic, it would be a nightmare – imagine 3, 10 of those in a row…
The main feature of good furniture design is its ability to be reproduced or mass-produced without loosing its art aspect. Our design schools tend to fail in teaching that.
so deprressing, but the design is ok some how. Hey Bekir Ademi are you from MK?