Un-easy Easy' chair

'Un-easy Easy' chair. A model scale 1:5 of an award winning chair to show the relationship between structure and tensional forces in a practical application, 1994.

This is a model of an un-easy easy chair, or 'tensegrity structure'. Tensegrity (tensional integrity) describes a structural-relationship principle in which the shape of the structure is maintained by continuous tension. Structural analysis is normally predicted on compressional continuity whereas nature never adopts this approach. The chair is unstable until someone is seated. When this happens, it becomes tense and fully stable. The chair is part of a design study by Peter L. Dixon, in which nature's analogies are applied to different media. Commended for Products of Innovation - SDI 1994.