Uku

Furniture must be robust enough to be reassuring, whilst at the same time visually light in appeal, and a lounge chair needs to be comfortable…welcoming, friendly and familiar, and provide the feeling of enveloping and ‘caring’ for the user.

It was also important to consider one frame as being able to support various sizes of sitting platform, low to high back and even a wingback, and so giving weight to the idea of creating a wooden frame that is visually light and simple, allowing the upholstered elements to visually float within it, whilst also enabling the combined elements to have a visual relationship that is more than purely functional.

I wanted the design to posses a Scandinavian influence where the honest, tactile, warm and familiar characteristics of wood are quietly abundant, and where the upholstered elements have a visually intuitive and inclusive relationship with the frame.

Although visually simple, the frame is designed to cradle the upholstery and create a harmonious and balanced whole, with no individual feature being the main protagonist. It was important to create a visual link between the junction of the arm and back upholstery, and as wood can be shaped to enable this I wanted the arm to look a part of the upholstered element and vice versa, connecting them visually as well as physically.