Furniture
·
2025
Horizon
A stacking chair with a softness most stackers lose.
Materials
Pressed plywood · Powder‑coated steel
Recognition
Student Prize — Institute of Designers in Ireland 2025
Role
Research, industrial design, CAD, prototyping
01
The problem, the user and what I learned
Café and co‑working operators replace chairs every three to five years. The chairs that fail are rarely broken; they are simply uncomfortable after an hour.
Observation in three Dublin venues showed people perching, leaning and turning. The brief became: stack eight high, survive commercial use, and still flex at the back.
02
On site Approval
Forty quick sketches tested one‑piece shells, split seat and back, and a sled base. The sled base stacked poorly on uneven floors and was dropped early.
A single pressed shell with a controlled flex zone at the lumbar won out. Full‑scale cardboard mock‑ups set the seat height and back angle before any plywood was pressed.
04
Issue at site
The shell is nine‑ply birch pressed to a 2.5 mm veneer face, with a thinner section at the back to allow four degrees of flex. The frame is 14 mm steel tube, powder coated.
Stacking geometry was checked in CAD across eight units for a 6 mm clearance at every contact point. Felt glides and a bolt‑on seat pad are the only service parts.
05
Sitting, stacking, moving
06
Where the project stands
Fold received the IDI Student Prize in 2025. Two production‑intent chairs were built with a plywood pressing partner in Wicklow.
The project is currently in conversation with a contract furniture brand about a small pilot run.