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Re-Made: Outdoor Seating
Second-hand furniture is rich with story, but is disregarded for its physical imperfections. Re-Made outdoor seating utilizes the material and stories from locally-sourced chairs to create stronger connections between people and the places they inhabit.
@ CMU School of Design
14 Weeks. Fall 2025.

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What’s wrong with these chairs?
Second-hand chairs often have structural and aesthetic defects. 
This usually deters people from repairing, keeping, or purchasing them.

Missing parts

Uneven/wobbly feet

Defects and discoloration

But these chairs have real advantages: with sufficient salvageable materials, unique flair, reasonable pricing, and their connection to the local area. 

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           Each product is unique, but same.

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Storied Material.
Sourcing chairs locally means evidence of wear from previous owners and a material connection to the place. Scratches, form, and finish becomes story.

Collapsible.

All parts fit into a bag which becomes the seat once assembled. This process opens a dialogue between human and object—with every assembly, the material stories reveal themselves.

Context.

Designed to be taken outside and enjoyed, spending time in the community the materials came from. A vehicle for connection between person and place. To feel closer to the entire place you live.

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Carry

Construct


Attach






In this use cycle, there are features that invite you to learn about the materials that the seat is comprised of (both obvious and subtle). 


These don’t show up all at once, and, like having a conversation with a human, spark dialogue between person and the chair. The more time you spend with it, the more you learn about its story.

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Designing.
The materials, the structure, the bags, and the assembly.

I had to create one new design that could be applied to countless existing designs. To do this, I first had to identify what was wrong with the chairs—and what they had in common. 





























Deconstructing the original chairs taught me many things about chairs—especially why (and how) they break, and why (and how) they don’t. 








Created the frames.








The bags and screenprinting.




Each bag is re-used. For each chair, a unique screenprint design was made to tell the story and show the components of that individual chair.

The bags serve their intended function (being a bag), but also to become the seat once assembled. 

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SKILLS
Problem Mapping
Industrial Design
Woodworking
3D Fabrication
Furniture Restoration
Textile Fabrication
Drawing / Ideating
Physical Prototyping
Screenprinting




TOOLS
Wood Fabrication Machinery
Power and Hand Tools
Screenprinting Facilities
Adobe CC
   Illustrator
   Photoshop

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