Xiaoyu Kang – Looking Outwards – 03

The Suture Chair is developed by Andrew Kudless in 2005. The chair itself is an extension of his “Honeycomb Morphologies/Manifold research project” that a double layered honeycomb system is used in designing the chair.

The honeycomb structure allows the chair to be both flexible and stable in shape, the chair itself however is able to rock in different directions and seating configurations. The exterior shape of the chair is designed based on the idea of suture curve, which is the same curve that is used to put balls such as the tennis ball together. The rings that made up the structure of the chair is known to have the minimal surface known as a Enneper surface spans, which also allows the chair supporting structure to be the thickest at the edge and the thinest at the center. To balance out the structural strength, a higher density of honeycomb members are put in the center of the chair, which also turns out to require the least structural depth in each of the cell units.