Extrude Chair

From the side an ordinary chair, with a back that runs on into the foot. From the front a stack of loose slats, with light falling between them.

Two faces

The chair is built up from dozens of thin pieces of wood that all share exactly the same outline. Seen straight from the side they collapse into a single silhouette: a classic chair, its back running down in one line and ending in a small foot. Turn a quarter and that unity falls apart. What you see then is no longer a shape but a play of open and closed parts — the slats stand at different heights, and the gaps between them matter as much as the wood.

How it was made

It started with one template. The section of the chair was drawn on a sheet of plywood, cut out and then finished carefully, because every irregularity in that template would be copied dozens of times over. Loose pieces of offcut timber were fixed to the template and run past a flush-trim router, so that each piece took on its shape exactly. The slats are joined to one another with concealed screws — no glue, so the chair can in principle be taken apart again.

The wood came from the offcut bin of a furniture workshop in Bergen, in North Holland. It has not been stained or evened out: the slats differ in colour and grain, and it is precisely those differences that show the shape was built up rather than carved from one piece.

It is heavy, and of everything I have made it is the sturdiest piece of furniture. There is one. A series would be possible — the template is still there.