christopher stuart's drape chair is digitally designed using CAD software that mimics fabric

indiana-based designer christopher stuart introduces his latest chair collection, ‘drape’, made of fiberglass and pearlized automotive paint. the chairs are ‘digitally draped’ objects utilizing a cad software tool that simulates that of real fabric. understructures were first modeled using blocky shapes to represent basic furniture elements. these generic forms were then digitally draped over, creating a ‘fabric’ shell that takes on a new form.

since gravity is non-existent in cad, draping can occur in any direction. the shelf and chair were both draped from the front like throwing fabric at the object versus dropping it from above. although the software mimics the fall of real fabric using the default settings, it was finding the less controllable variables that were more interesting; a somewhat dissolved version of the original and impossible to create the same drape twice. the resulting forms, according to stuart, feel somewhere between natural and digital, real and synthetic. 

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.

edited by: lynn chaya | designboom

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