Shear Chair

Shear Chair, 2012

Designed in Rhinoceros, CNC cut 1/2 plywood, custom machined hardware, black lacquer finish.

Shear Chair was designed as a personal challenge to make a multi-purpose piece of furniture that would be both large enough to seat two people comfortably, but also compact enough to fold down and slide beneath a bed when not in use. If used by a single person, the second seat can remain folded and used as a flat surface to set a plate of food or a laptop on.

The design of the Shear Chair was intended to appeal to college students or those who have very small loft-style apartments, with little room for large furniture items. The chair was cut from a single sheet of 1/2 inch plywood, which could be flat-packed and shipped to an address. It was also designed to be easily assembled by one person, simply by sliding a threaded rod through a series of holes, thus creating the pivot point on which the chair folds.