CCAD student has chair collapse underneath him

A chair made of cardboard? It is not the first material that comes to mind when designing a chair, especially one that needs to hold up to 250 pounds. Add to the challenge the fact that the chair can only be made from a 4′ by 8′ cardboard sheet using no glue or tape. The final design must also include an armrest, backrest, and a writing surface. Tricky huh?

Well that is the four-week project that Industrial Design Studio II students have to complete each year.

In order to create their final chair, students had to make a ¼-scale model, cut path drawings, complete full-size testing, and create an instruction manual. Then on Monday, Oct. 31 their designs were put to the test.

As a final challenge, the unique chairs are set up in a circle in CCAD’s Design Studios on Broad and one by one, students take turns sitting down in them.

Each student had to evaluate the chair on whether it met the project criteria, as well as how sturdy and comfortable it was. Crowds gathered on the outskirts to take pictures and cheer them on, and freshmen interested in Industrial Design studied the chairs as peers and instructors came to watch the annual test.

The competition got heavy (no pun intended) and left only a few chairs intact. At the end, students gathered around to survey the damage and see if anything could be salvaged.

Read more about the Industrial Design program at CCAD here.

Participant in Industrial Design Studio II cardboard chair project

Can you design a cardboard chair strong enough to hold 250 pounds? Each year CCAD students in Industrial Design Studio II address this question with their cardboard chair project.

The challenge is to design a seating device that has good seat proportions, a back rest, arm rests, a writing surface, and is made of only one 4’ x 8’ sheet of cardboard. Oh, and there’s no tape or glue allowed!

This annual tradition is a four-week project that involves research, 1/4-scale models, cut path drawings, full size testing and an assembly instruction manual. The project culminates in testing and evaluation by the entire class, one by one, lightest to heaviest.

This year’s final test took place on Oct. 27 in Design Studios on Broad. Weight started at 110 pounds and moved up past 200 pounds with several chairs surviving through 250 pounds of weight.

Industrial Design students with cardboard chairs

Each year CCAD students in Industrial Design studio II find out if they can design cardboard chairs that are strong enough for someone to sit in.

The annual tradition known as the cardboard chair competition is a four-week project that involves research, ¼-scale models, cut path drawings, full size testing and an assembly instruction manual. The whole project culminates in a competition where the cardboard constructed chairs are sat upon over and over again until the competition crumbles and only a few remain standing (or rather seated).

The final competition of the 2009 project took place Oct. 15 in Design Studios on Broad.