Hungarian designer Demeter Fogarasi has created a prototype chair with a seat that looks like a windswept sheet of fabric frozen in motion.
The fabric is made of layers of plastic and textile that are heat-pressed to form a composite material, able to be reheated and shaped until it cools and sets firm.
"I started the design process with material studies, working with a biodegradable plastic (PLA), and natural textiles," said Fogarasi, whose other designs include a sofa that appears to have been punctured by giant dressmaker's pins.
"The aim was to create a composite material that not only possessed good technical properties but also emphasised naturalness, and looks and feels intriguing and inspiring," he added.
The designer used a mould to create the seat of the chair, which rests on a tubular steel framework. The structure has two shorter legs at the front and two longer ones at the back, giving the chair an angled profile.
The seat dips in, as if inhabited by an invisible person, while the rest of the fabric extends in irregular ripples above and beyond the legs – as if being blown by wind.
"I wanted to make the chair look theatrical, to emphasise the process to save the moment of creation," Fogarasi told Dezeen.
"The idea was to create a concept furniture, which is concerned with the poetic nature of the material," he added. "While forming the furniture, the originally soft material becomes rigid."
"I wanted to save this moment of creation, when a piece of textile is 'blown' onto the frame, forming a chair."
A team of students from the Bartlett School of Architecture has also recently worked with soft material that sets hard after being moulded, creating a chair that resembled a bundle of tangled tree roots.
Photography is by Mihály Demeczky.