Cardboard ‘Chair Affair’

Cardboard seems to have more uses than just storage because Jonathan Coop, an industrial design major, is being honored for his cardboard chair design.

After reviewing 171 cardboard chair designs from 11 universities and colleges, the judges of the American Institute of Architecture Students 2009 Chair Affair Design Competition chose Coop’s chair design as one of the top six designs.

All six finalists will have their chairs displayed at the AIAS 2009 National Convention and Design Exposition in San Francisco on April 30. A second panel will look at the top six designs and choose those who win first, second and third place, while the three others will receive honorable mentions. All six will be displayed at the National Building Museum this summer.

This was Coop’s first try at making something functional out of cardboard.

Cardboard is made from a natural renewable resource and has the best recycling rate of any packaging material used today.

“I wanted a simple form that transitioned from the armrest into the backrest,” Coop said.

Coop used a cookie-cutter stamp, razor, glue and hammer and voilà! Thirty hours and 260 layers of cardboard later, he had built a chair.

All the students in Coop’s class were required to build cardboard chairs, but entering the competition was optional.

The Chair Affair Design competition is meant to challenge students and also introduce the students to the cardboard industry, which has career opportunities for students graduating in architecture and design.

Industrial design is a true passion for Coop.

“I finally found my calling,” Coop said. Being an industrial designer is being an architect for products, Coop explained. “It’s sort of a mix of an engineer and an artist.”

Anything and everything inspires Coop. He and his roommates, also industrial design majors, live and breathe it, and that’s what is really inspiring, Coop said.

“It’s basically seeing people’s creative idea inspires other ideas,” Coop said.

Even with two jobs — one full-time and the other part-time — as well as nine units and a lot of homework, Coop still has been able to find the time to grab every opportunity presented to him, whether it is a competition or a scholarship. He has already been the recipient of two scholarships and his cardboard chair will earn him his third one.

Time is Coop’s biggest challenge and also his biggest motivation, he said. Having the concept is not enough, you still have to build it, and that’s where it gets tricky, Coop said.

“You can’t get your concept across and it’s not working, so you’ll have these high and low moments of going through everything,” Coop said. “Sometimes you have to keep hammering at it until you get it right.”

The sophomore design portfolio exhibit will be held at the CSULB design gallery from April 24 to 30 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. where Coop and other industrial design majors will have their work exhibited along with interior architecture majors.