Design guidelines on fabricating large and functional soft furniture using foam sheets

Abstract

The use of flexible materials on functional objects are well explored in small scale rather than large structures. Using flexible and renewable Polyethylene foam sheets, we present a set of design guidelines to fabricate soft, functional, and furniture size objects. We identify and show the unique joining, bending, and customizing features using the material. We also experiment and provide minimal structural guidelines to avoid artifacts with flexible material. Finally, we implement the insights into a number of real scale prototypes and evaluate them with real users to demonstrate the applicability of the guidelines for prototyping and customized objects.