Flexible, compact, and understandable, the Värnamo was designed to blend into almost any situation, whether it is the extra chair at a dinner party or on the porch of a summer house. The Värnamo fits all and will be easily packed for the next occasion. The Värnamo embodies Danish design through its honesty in material and democratic design. Built to emphasize tactility and play, the Värnamo comes apart without fasteners to create a flat-pack chair.
Detailed process below!!!
Role
Furniture Designer, Carpenter, Researcher
Timeline
Seven Weeks (Summer 2024)
Tools
Adobe Creative Suite, Hand Drafting
Location
Copenhagen, Denmark
Design Principles
#1 Flat-pack ability
The chair needs to break free from the belief that space is a premium and needs to be treasured; this principle determines its form.
#2 Honesty in design
Using traditional techniques the design will not hide its construction or material, it is intended for the user to understand the design intuitively.
#3 Tactility
The design needs to be able to be taken apart without tools, allowing the user to have tactility and play creating a greater connection to the chair.
DESIGN PROCESS (With the Aid of Bereal)
Sketching:
Sketching is the beginning of my design process, serving as a way to create rapid iterations that create rough shapes but distinguishable ideas. From the beginning, I wanted the Värnamo to be a knock-down style of chair, able to be taken apart and put together on a whim, and to follow traditional Danish styles of honesty in material use and simplicity in form.
To dowel or to wedge?
The stretchers that hold the chair together need to be locked into the frame with some sort of connection. After looking through a multitude of options the two front runners were dowels and wedges. I originally held the idea that wedges would be preferable and with a dark stain their contrast would be nice. However, dowels would offer a stronger joint and would root themselves more so in tradition acting as a compliment to the chair rather than being the star of the show.
Armchair or Side Chair?
Choosing between either style was a choice of either comfort or accessibility. Armchairs are far more comfortable than the side chair, having a place to rest your shoulders is incredibly impactful. Whereas, the side chair is not as comfortable it fits far more body types and is less restrictive. The form of the side chairs as well was more minimal so the armchair was thrown out and the side chair was king.
Three or Five Seat Slats; One or Two Back Slats?
The next big decision was between having three large seats and one large back slat or five small seats and two small back slats. Larger slats held the same nature as the stretchers and formed a very unified vision. Small slats were more comfortable and introduced a cool feature (video below; inspired by Lamella by Gunnar Agard Anderson} bending to each user. Couple this with some nifty innovation-floating seat and back slats, and the Värnamo was ready for drafting.
Full-scale drafting
Creating a full-scale draft allows finalizing decisions for the physical prototype while allowing greater visualization of the space.
Now we build!
Creating the first prototype was a rewarding process. I loved watching the design come to life.
