New York designer Paul Loebach's flat-pack wooden chair slots together without glue, as demonstrated in a series of vaguely pornographic gifs (+ slideshow).
Paul Loebach showcased the prototype of his flat pack PEG chair in collaboration with Makers Anonymous during New York design week last month.
The chair – which Loebach says is "charming and childlike in its purity" – comprises eight pieces of birch wood machined using Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) technology.
These fit together using "peg and hole" joints, as the gifs graphically show.
As the wood naturally expands and contracts over time the structure tightens, creating a sturdy and stable form. PEG stands for Parts Excluding Glue.
"As a product designer I'm constantly looking at connections and how things fit together," Loebach told Dezeen. "One inspiration for the PEG chair was the plastic barricades seen everywhere on the streets of New York. They use a peg-and-hole joint to make a sturdy connection, which can be removed quickly and easily."
"The interesting thing for me about the peg is in its simplicity. To that extent the peg becomes more than a way to join two parts, it also acts as a symbol, with something charming and childlike in its purity and ability to solve a common problem using one of the most primitive and immediate means imaginable."
Loebach wanted the chair to respond to the modern challenge to ship furniture as compactly and efficiently as possible.
"I think flat packing, assembly and disassembly have become a symbol of intelligence in furniture design," he said. "It relates to how we move things around, because creating large packages full of air is hugely wasteful, whether shipping large quantities from a factory, putting a few boxes into your car, storing a product when it's not in use, or even getting it to another person later when it changes ownership."
"A good product moves through different phases of use over time, and needs to adapt to those changes in intelligent ways,” he said.
The PEG chairs can be assembled by pushing the sections together by hand, or tapping them with a small hammer or mallet.
Makers Anonymous is a multi-faceted Brooklyn-based studio blending customised CNC technology with traditional techniques for product development, prototyping, and limited edition runs.
