“In order to see into the future, sometimes one must look into the past.” –author unknown

That’s exactly how Utrecht designer, Bram Geenen, gets much of his inspiration, by examining past artists and their works and adding his touch of flair to them. For his latest project, Bram created a stool made of carbon fiber and his inspiration was famed 19th century Modernist style architect, Antonio Gaudí. Gaudí was famous for mixing gothic architecture with a modern style and paying close attention to nature’s angles and curves. Bram also used Gaudí’s idea of creating a model of hanging chains and allowing gravity to determine the strongest and weakest points.

The stool, weighing just one kilogram, was created by Geenen as part of the Furnistructures Project, which focuses on creating lightweight products. It derives its strength from the beam-grid substructure and is made of rapid-prototyped polyamide, while the top of the stool is a thin layer of carbon fiber.  The carbon fiber composite was developed in cooperation with composite manufacturer CEEMO design/engineering and Mareco Prototyping.

The stool is on the small side, 60 x 60 x 50 cm, so that may deter some people from purchasing it for practical purposes. However, if this is a must have, production has been kept surprisingly low, making it a feasible product for production, which is currently taking place with the Dutch research-institute TNO.