Tandem Triarc Public Seating
Project Story
Travel around the east coast for years gifted me a deep connection with the lifestyle of air travel. Coincidently, two months ago, professor Tony Kawanari passed me this piece of brief about this competition seeking a solution for the next generation airport chair. I certainly won't miss this chance, because a designer cannot expect more than designing life one lives.
I started keeping journal writing about how people sit in the airport. It is such as comprehensive topic when all things are considered, whereas, there is always one thing missing when it comes to such comprehensive systematic issue - the user. Which is the point of view I picked up through the whole journey of research and design.
Define
Boarding lounge is exemplary in terms of how human design mechanistically confine human nature. In most airports at east coast, floor plans lay out upon grid systems, which i consider as a result in light of economy. Being a component of such layout, tandem chairs normally design to be a segment of such system.
Letting alone the formidable need of economy, I started wondering what would be the human centered solution to celebrate the nature of airport life dynamics? how can organicity be stressed in this case. how to address these questions with a single design?
Seating dynamics of Airport Lounge posed by myself
I sought to define what I called the seating dynamics of airport lounge, which took me few trips simply just watching how people entertain themselves on seats near boarding gates. I summarized those using the photo I rendered (see above).
An apparent dichotomy between the needs of individual and the needs of group is found. Where Individuals commonly demand serenity, privacy and distances to group travelers as well as having openness to other individuals. Meanwhile, companies don't ask much than exclusiveness in the space they occupy. The challenge in this case really is to satisfy both with one shot.
Design
Please refer to following link for process review: