wover the woven rocker teeters at 2014 seattle design festival

wover the woven rocker teeters at 2014 seattle design festival

to provide a place of both relaxation and play for public use at the 2014 seattle design festival, a group of architects and designers teamed up to realize wover ‘the woven rocker’, which occupied the city’s occidental park for the weekend long ceremony. the project was conceived based on two basic principles: contrasting tectonics that utilize textile production methods and the event’s theme ‘design in motion’. the result is a curving-bottomed plywood framework, which supports a surface of woven straps to create an open 155 square-foot space.

the structure and woven textile surface creates a place for relaxation and play

wover’s profile, which is repeated nine times to reach a length of 15 feet, was carefully calculated for optimized rock-ability along with comfort while seated inside. in addition, the structure’s symmetrical balance ensures that it will naturally return to equilibrium. the design/build team describes the project’s construction as follows:

‘the ribs were held together by multiple threaded rods, which are wrapped in a hand woven polypropylene webbing. each of the ribs were CNC milled specifically to suspend the webbing. the ribs were laminated individually and the whole structure was assembled by hand. concurrently, the polypropylene webbing was sewn in strips at tarboo, a handmade clothing shop in seattle. afterwards, the strips were woven together to create the interior of the rocker.’

a curving step aids access to the elevated rocking space
photo by jennifer burke

while in action at the seattle design festival, wover was enjoyed by many groups of playful children alongside smiling adults. speaking in regards to the structure’s functional and experiential results, the design team states, ‘the consistent flow of participants of all ages truly tested the integrity of the design; yet despite being in constant motion, the structure and the textiles never ceased to perform. ultimately, the rocker far exceeded the designers’ expectations and provided a fun, memorable experience for all of the visitors of the design festival.’

wover’s design team consisted of matt noren, clay anderson, jonathan french, taylor massey, sarah kia, SL rao, aimée o’carroll, darrell mckinney, jayne jaderholm, ekaterina wright, andrew powell, and hoffmann construction.

photos by jennifer burke

wover in action at the seattle design festival
photo by jennifer burke

the strapped walls provide a reclined surface for relaxed sitting
photo by jennifer burke

composed of nine plywood ribs, wover measures 15 feet in length and 7 feet in height

(left) north elevation
(right) east elevation

(left) south elevation
(right) plan diagram

exploded axonometric

detail drawings and photos

assembly diagrams

concept sketch

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.