Whale Chair

AIA’10 (Colorado) Award Winner, 2017

As a student abroad in Copenhagen I lived with my host mom an hour north in Nivå, Denmark. Through the +1hr trip into CPH, the first experiences of commuting by train were established. Equal in respect, how joyous that Nordic consideration between rural life and urban life.

That relationship with nature stayed with me, even after I returned to the US. It became a foundation upon which a chair of laminated wood was born during a Furniture Studio offered by the University of Oregon. By integrating techniques of Arne Jacobsen and Charles and Ray Eames with the above souvenir from my previous summer, a concept realized itself as wooden dining chair, strong and light, echoing the shape of an animal whose traits of those themes is unmatched in our world.

It was iterated many times, drafted at full scale many times. It was re-iterated with models. Eventually it was constructed.

The whole process took 10 weeks to complete. My first built work. It was given to my parents as a gift.

Studio Professor: Nils Ole Zib

Photography: Lissa Barber