TWISTABLE RING

The Medieval Dutch painter Bruegel’s “The Land of Cockaigne” is quite ironic in its portrayal of gluttony and laziness, but the divergent postures of the characters in the painting inadvertently reveal the fact, that the human body is desiring for “paralysis” in a relaxed state after a day’s exhausting work.

In the 1960s, ergonomics pioneered space design. Italian architects Piero Gatti, Cesare Paolini and Franco Teodoro designed the beanbag-style Sacco chair. In contrast to the angular appearance of traditional furniture, the Sacco chair not only entered the daily life of the public, but also was highly sought after by the fashion industry at that time. Its bulbous shape closely fits the body movement, and the soft filling material provides the right support for the body of the “lazybones”.

From ancient times to the present, human beings have struggled to satisfy the languid cravings of the body. The contemporary seating in public space should both release the nature of leaning between heaven and earth and become a unique outdoor installation art. Public seating should encourage people to be creative in the process of arrangement and use; the form and scale should take into account the requirements of adjustable social distance in the post-epidemic era; materials and maintenance should follow the concept of sustainability to reduce resource waste and environmental pollution.

The characteristics of flexibility and lightweight enable the ring to be flexibly twisted and combined by citizens, thereby forming a rich and vivid use scene. Different from traditional public seating, diverse spaces formed by twisting rings not only adapt to the various postures of the body, but also meet the requirements of social distancing in the post-epidemic era. The arrangement of the seats and the process of using them encourage creativity and stimulate the vitality of the public space.

Overpackaging of express delivery and takeaways produces a lot of plastic waste, and the disposal of waste building insulation materials has also become a serious environmental problem. The light weight and elasticity of EPS make it a reasonable choice for the filling material of the twistable ring.Thus waste EPS foam was chosen as the filling material for the Ring. Different from the typical chemical regeneration, this proposal only performs physical recycling such as cleaning and chopping of the waste EPS foam, which minimizes the impact on the environment.

Recycled EPS styrofoam is used as the filling material, which not only provides certain elastic support for the ring monomer but also gives it a suitable weight as an outdoor seat. Through the transparent elastic skin, the recycled filling material is faintly visible, reflecting the environmental education significance of the seat. Built-in a small amount of fluorescent material can make the ring glow at night. The external air balance knob is used to maintain the regular shape of the ring body in the twisted state. The self-cleaning super hydrophilic nano-coating keeps the outer surface of the ring clean, reducing cleaning and maintenance costs.

Status

A8 Urban Chair Competition

_1st Prize
http://www.a8dc.com.cn/competition/262.html

Team

Shiqing Liu, Yang Liu