Acrylic Chair Study — Layered Transparency

Outcome. A chair study developed through laser-cut acrylic layers, where contour profiles, transparency, and fluorescent color produce a compact object with visual depth and structural clarity.

Role: Individual Project · Dates: Spring 2021 · Context: Furniture Design & Fabrication Studio · Tools: Rhino, Laser Cutting, Acrylic Fabrication, Physical Prototyping

Brief

This project explored the chair not only as a functional type, but as a formal and material study. The aim was to investigate how a recognizable furniture silhouette could be reinterpreted through contour layering and transparent material.

Rather than building mass, the project builds volume through accumulation — using a sequence of cut profiles to define the chair spatially.

Concept

The chair is composed of repeated acrylic sections that trace and slightly shift along a continuous profile. This produces a form that feels both solid and lightweight: legible as a chair, yet visually softened by transparency and edge effects.

Fluorescent acrylic was used to intensify this reading. Depending on angle and light, the object appears alternately crisp, luminous, and partially dissolved — turning a simple small-scale study into an exploration of perception as well as form.

Fabrication Logic

The project relies on the precision of laser cutting to maintain consistency across multiple contour layers. Each piece acts as both structure and visual boundary, while the spacing and stacking of the parts generate thickness, depth, and curvature.

A central strength of the project is the translation from two-dimensional cut geometry to three-dimensional spatial presence. The final object is not carved from a solid volume; instead, it is assembled from discrete profiles whose alignment creates the chair’s overall body.

Material Study

Acrylic introduced a different design logic from cardboard or opaque sheet materials. Transparency exposed the internal layering rather than concealing it, making fabrication part of the visual language of the object.

Color also played an active role. The fluorescent inserts emphasize gradients of density and edge glow, allowing the chair to operate simultaneously as a furniture prototype and as a light-sensitive material experiment.

Outcome

The final study demonstrates how furniture can be represented through minimal geometry, repeated sections, and controlled material effects. It highlights a design approach grounded in precision, iteration, and fabrication-aware form making.

Process