Dutch graduate designer Carolien Laro has designed a range of stools with flexible seats created by cutting slits into their solid wood tops. 

Above: Restless Legs

Called Springwood, the collection includes a three-seater bench and three stools, one on wheels, one without and another with folded steel legs, all with pliable wooden seats.

Above: Original

Each seat requires 480 CNC-milled cuts.

Above: The Paperclip

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Above: The Bridge

The following information is from manufacturers Ritmeester:

Spring Wood., developed by Carolien Laro, a graduated student at the Arts Academy St Joost and Amsterdam Wood and Furniture College.

Carolien searched for the limits of wood.... with great success! Carolien wanted to bring two contradictions of wood together: rigidity and flexibility. She succeeded, with the background of a party garland in mind.

Because our company does like to stimulate young talent we offered Carolien the opportunity to develop her concept of Spring Wood to a ‘ready to sell’ piece of furniture.

That seems simple but it is not. Carolien invested more than 600 hours (!) in the development of her hand made first prototype. So much work in one small stool is commercially not feasible so every technical detail had to be developed for the real production of her idea.

It was quite a journey and during 2010 she worked hard to developed a few versions of Spring Wood, apart from the original version’: These are: The Paperclip, Restless Legs and The Bridge.

Carolien was very successfull with her idea: she won the Wood Challenge Prize as well as a nomination for the IMI Award as well as the DOEN material prize.

Spring Wood seems very simple but it isn’t: it is very complex and laborious. Selecting the right ashwood and machining it. The glueing process followed by the CNC sawing: in total more than 480 CNC groove-milling steps are necessary for one ‘wooden pillow’....

See also:

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Rubber Stool by h220430	Flex by Georgi Manassiev	Soft Oak chair by Pepe Heykoop