Product news: South Korean designer Soyoon Choi has created a wooden lounge chair with armrests inspired by a ribcage.
Bone by Soyoon Choi is made from beech and painted in a bright shade of red.
The chair was launched at Seoul Design Festival last December and is available to buy directly from the designer.
We've featured plenty of wooden chairs lately, including some wonky chairs that look like classic designs when seen from a certain angle and another made from old broom handles – see all chairs.
Other pieces of South Korean design we've published include storage boxes fastened with duffle coat toggles and hand-made speakers made from ceramic and twigs.
Not a good way of using wood… and the proportion just looks very heavy.
The ribs are unnecessary: they don’t provide any structural support. It just makes the chair heavier both physically and visually.
But the ribs may contribute to the user/purchaser’s emotional response. Define unnecessary, because some of us think beauty (although subjective) is a necessity. If you don’t think it’s beautiful, don’t buy it or – taken to an extreme – refuse to sit in it if you chance upon it.
Even a rigorously functional chair is a just another chair the world doesn’t really need, so all new chairs are subject to the same criticism no matter how purportedly worthy.
Just to add to the above, I can think of functions for the “additional” ribs: I often place books down the side of a seat when pausing during a read and the ribs would prevent the books crashing to the floor; I also like the feeling of enclosure when sitting in a chair. The cradling effect adds to a sense of security and comfort – chairs are meant to provide these as well as mere support aren’t they?
There you go: ribs justified. My initial instinctive response to your criticism also justified.
I really agree about the books! Mine are always falling off one way or another, so it’s nice to have a more enclosed chair. As for your sentiments about the “cradling” effect, ironically I just wrote on my blog about a pod/chair that people say have that affect too. You should check it out – it’s called the HUSH.