Cardboard Chair Nets Award for Architecture Students

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — A 12-hour overnight marathon of hand sanding and assembling cardboard pieces paid off big for architecture students Amy McCarty and Hatti Terrell. They won an honorable mention in a national design competition — their first — for a cardboard chair built in the midst of final projects and exams last fall. Constructed from 228 pieces that lock together to form a sleekly curved, simple form, the chair was one of six chosen from across the country in the Chair Affair Competition sponsored by the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) and the International Corrugated Packaging Foundation.

“Here’s the most amazing thing about the chair,” said John Humphries, a visiting assistant professor of architecture who taught McCarty and Terrell’s second-year studio. “It’s actually comfortable, and most chairs aren’t, especially those designed by architects.”

The students set comfort aside initially and looked to designs such as Frank Gehry’s cardboard “Squiggle” chair for inspiration.

“We’d never made a chair before, so we had to look at examples, analyze them and see how they were made,” Terrell said.

“After looking online we pinned up a bunch of tracing paper and started drawing,” McCarty added.

Once they had developed and refined their design, contouring the back to make it more comfortable, McCarty and Terrell purchased scrap cardboard from their classmates and began figuring out the School of Architecture’s CNC router, a software-driven mill the size of a small car. Their learning curve on the machine improved the design.

“We didn’t understand how to adjust one of the settings at first, so the mill cut pieces in two slightly different sizes, which actually makes the chair more comfortable and aesthetically pleasing,” McCarty said.

Though open in its design, the chair is sturdy.

“It’s been shipped, thrown in the back of my car, and it’s survived my dogs — it’s solid!” Terrell said with a grin.

The chair was exhibited last June in Chicago at the American Institute of Architects National Convention and Design Exposition, and more recently the project was published in the Fall 2004 issue of CRiT, the journal of the AIAS. The prize-winning chair is currently on display in Vol Walker Hall.

These young women aren’t content to rest (or sit) on their laurels though. They’re looking forward to the next AIAS chair competition.

“I heard they might sponsor a plastics competition this year,” Terrell said.