SEATING – With his Data Stool, recent
Design Academy Eindhoven graduate
Henri Canivez uses generative design to
literally personalize a seat. After measuring
the intended user’s weight and dimensions,
Canivez plugs this information into a custom
algorithm to generate the micro-architecture
of a stool that is then 3D-printed in two ver-
sions: PLA bioplastic and aluminium, nylon
and glass.
If we look at seats, however, as
essential props for human socializing – made
precisely to be used by any number of people
- how useful is the Data Stool? By hyper-
customizing a seat to follow the contours of
one person’s body, are we making it useless to
others? Goldilocks had to try a trio of chairs
before she found one that was just right, but
the rest of us probably would have just made
do with Papa Bear’s chair. How long, after
breaking and entering, was the fair-haired girl
planning on sitting around there anyway? It
may be ideal to tailor a suit, to generate a tex-
tile design, or to add artistic value by freezing
one frame in an algorithmic animation of a
chair and printing a unique iteration of an
ever-shifting design (as Ammar Eloueini did
with CoReFab#71), but a made-to-measure
stool may be a customization too far.
That said, the Data Stool is gratifying
in its extremity: it makes abstract personal
data visible, palpable, even sittable, an innova-
tion that allows us to see ourselves in our
objects. It is not just ‘mine’, but a representa-
tion of ‘me’. As Canivez puts it, ‘This is about
bringing the user back to the origin of the
creative process.’ – SM
henricanivez.com
Can hyper-customizing
products cause us to lose sight of
their COMMUNAL FUNCTION?
Nicole^Marnati,^ courtesy
o
f^ DesignAcadem
y^ EindhovenOBJECTS 29