SUNREST
Project Introduction
For my DIY final project, we are free to make anything we want in anyway we like. I named my product SUNREST since my last name is Sun, and it acts a foot rest and a stool, both of which offer a place for people to rest on. In addition, I imagined I would use the product in my leisure time as the sunset is appearing, which can be interpreted as sun is resting as well.
Rendering + prototype
Below are renderings of my design and prototype made. I am going to talk more about my inspiration of the project after.
Video Introduction
product inspiration
For this project, I need to choose our target client. I chose my family as the customer this time since I have always wanted to use what I learn to make something tangible for my parents and myself.
When it comes to what would I make, my family is moving to a house from an apartment and I am always intrigued by the lifestyle of reading books in armchairs and a foot rest seems natural for that. In addition, my mom sometimes wipes floor while squatting down, so a low stool would help a lot. A stool/foot rest idea comes to my mind. Below is a mood board of images that represented my ideal lifestyle which inspired my design.
Form Inspiration
As for material, wood is a no brainer for me since it has a natural look and finish without any polishing. I later decided to use plywood since it has high strength to weight ratio, remains flat on surface while under heave load and has a wood grain pattern on the outside.
Below is a mood board with images that inspire details of my stool which include material selection, manufacturing method and design. I am going to talk more about my manufacturing method and design inspiration further down this page.
Design, manufacturing choice
From my DIY lamp project, I used the interlocked construction to build the oval shape lamp before knowing slicer since I loved creating 3d geometry by joining planar pieces together. Then I learned to use slicer for the DIY clay model project, both of which you can check in my portfolio. To make the stool more comfortable, I would want to add curved geometry to make the stool/foot rest more ergonomic. Using slicer would make the process of creating those geometries painless.
Knowing I want to make some wood stool/foot rest using laser cut plywood, I went through a lot of foot rest design and find them to all have flat surfaces and rather simple form factor which won't work well for a stool. Looking at more wood stool, chair and sofa I start to appreciate the ergonomic curved surface for the body/feet to rest on and it's an easy way to form them by combing laser cut pieces. While doing sketches, I went from a chair with complicated combination of wood to a low stool with simpler form that could be formed from one piece of wood which fulfill my requirement for a comfortable low stool that could also act as a foot rest.
Below are images of my sketch, cad and manufacturing process.
