The Pleats Chair by Ilseop Yoon uses recyclable aluminium to create strong, lightweight, modern seating

The pleats chair is aluminium chair that is lightweight and has strong structure from pleats. The pleats are structured with the pattern that is widely used in an architecture and a fashion in terms of the strong structure and the beautiful aesthetics.  

The body of the pleats chair was made by applying a strong pressure to the  two part molds. The molds has  two wooded parts, one embossed, the other debossed with a pleated patterns. These pleats are engraved on the aluminum sheets when strong pressure are  applied to the aluminum sheet. The profile of the cross section continuous from the backrest to the seat.  As a result, the thin aluminum sheet is transformed into a shell with a rigid structure that can hold the weight of the person while maintaining the lightness.  The legs follows the same radius as the cross-section of the pleats.   By sharing same radius, solid legs and the thin body create perfect balance. Embossed pattern and the profile of the chair brings a unique character the pleated chair.
 
The Pleats chair was made out of one material, which is a recyclable aluminum. By benefiting the structure of the design, chair was rigid enough with a minimized usage of the raw material.  The beginning of this project was considering the way of creating object to make it environment-friendly. I explored  recyclable material while minimizing the materials used in the chairs. What I found was aluminum. The energy to  recycle the aluminum only requires  5% of the energy of producing the new aluminum. The recycled aluminium generally can save significant amount of the cost over the production of new aluminium, even after the cost of collection, separation and recycling are taken into account. Aluminium is not only a good material for recycling but also a strong and lightweight material when used for a chair.

SKETCHES

CONSTRUCTION PROCESS

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FINAL BUILD

All images courtesy Ilseop Yoon official website
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