'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.



'plytube' stools on display at imm cologne furniture fair 2011
image © designboom









detail of the stool's seat and plytube legs



seat detail



up close of the intersection plytubes that make up the supporting legs of the stool
image © designboom



the intersecting hollow tubes
image © designboom



plytubes ready to be used



tubes cut to various lengths






sanding the tubes



demonstrating the strength of the plytube



plytube experiments



more experiments on using the veneer to form tubes


mallet



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'