Royal College of Art graduate Rachel Jui Chi Chang created wooden shoes based on furniture and engineering for this footwear collection (+ slideshow).

After analysing the construction of chairs, Chang used CAD software to design the range before working with craftsmen to realise the maple wood and metal designs.

“I think footwear is a human support structure,” she says. “Their construction is integral to the design and uses the principles of the slotting system found in furniture and engineering.”

One shoe comprises two halves that slot together on pegs, wedged together using a third piece to support the heel. A wide tan leather strap over the top secures the foot.

The heel of another design is formed from strips of wood that create an angular shape, with the base balanced on one edge.

Holes in this section reduce the weight and are detailed with metal, which runs down the exposed underside of the arch into strips on the heel.

Another model, which scoops upward at the toe, has bronze-lined gaps through the middle and in the bottom of the sole.

Chang's references for the collection included London shoe designer and RCA alumni Chau Har Lee, as well as designs by Dieter Rams and Charles and Ray Eames. Also influenced by furniture, Rem Koolhaas' collection for United Nude includes a shoe with part of an Eames chair for a heel.

Other graduating Royal College of Art students presented headdresses covered in hundreds of colourful bristles and plump pastel silicone garments moulded from knitwear at the institution's annual show last month.

We've published a couple of stories about wooden shoes including chunky pairs that clamp around the wearer's feet and carved trainers for K-Swiss.

Previously we've featured back-to-front stilettos that force the wearer to walk in an unusual way and shoes that undergo physical changes to represent stages in a life cycle.

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