‘plytube’ stools

korean designer seongyong lee has previously participated in our designboom exhibitions ‘seoul design essence’ and ‘asia now’. now he presents his ‘plytube stool’ as part of the [d3] design talents at the imm cologne 2011

this seating design uses a similar principal to that of making paper tubes. instead of paper though, lee uses sheets of wood veneer to create tubes. in this way, he presents this technique as a new means of ‘tubing’ wood, which includes an additional process in which to harden the tubes. the composition of ‘plytubes’ allow them to be both light and strong at the same time. overall, the stool weighs 820g, despite its size and rigid structure.

for manufacturing purposes, the color, diameter, thickness, type of wood of the tubes could be customized and used for application for architectural purposes, as well as everyday pieces such as furniture.

seongyong lee: plytube stool ‘plytube’ stools on display at imm cologne furniture fair 2011 image © designboom

seongyong lee: plytube stool

seongyong lee: plytube stool

seongyong lee: plytube stool detail of the stool’s seat and plytube legs

seongyong lee: plytube stool seat detail

seongyong lee: plytube stool up close of the intersection plytubes that make up the supporting legs of the stool image © designboom

seongyong lee: plytube stool the intersecting hollow tubes image © designboom

seongyong lee: plytube stool plytubes ready to be used

seongyong lee: plytube stool tubes cut to various lengths

seongyong lee: plytube stool

seongyong lee: plytube stool sanding the tubes

seongyong lee: plytube stool demonstrating the strength of the plytube

seongyong lee: plytube stool plytube experiments

seongyong lee: plytube stool more experiments on using the veneer to form tubes

seongyong lee: plytube stool mallet

seongyong lee: plytube stool seong yong lee image © designboom

lee has also been a shortlisted winner of our designboom competitions including his: ‘floater’ cutlery in the designboom competition dining in 2015 and ‘static table set’ in the designboom competition ‘premio vico magistretti’