The project brief was simple: create an object of rest that is transportable and easy to store. As additional design criteria, we each had to imagine our idealized place of rest and design our object to respond to the nature of this environment. For me, this idealized site consisted of rocky terrain, dotted with evergreens, leading to a small wooden dock resting on a calm body of water.

With this idealized site in mind, I opted to create a chair for my object of rest. The design of the chair is meant to evoke the feeling of momentarily being suspended over water when jumping off a dock. To accomplish this it has a lightweight wood frame that gently bends outwards to suspend a cloth canopy above the ground plane. These frame components are connected using a custom hinge cut from an extrusion of aluminum. These hinges allow the canopy position to be adjusted, even allowing it to be suspended above water when tied off to a cleat on the dock.

The chair’s detailing recalls its nautical influences, adapting assembly methods and fasteners found in the sailboats I grew up sailing with my family in Maine.