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The Roundabout is a collapsible stool for the living room. Meant as an additional seat for guests, it can easily be unfolded by pulling up and twisting the top section. When in its collapsed state, it can be stored under certain coffee tables.
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​When fully compressed, the seat can still be used, similarly to a pouf. All the aluminum cylinders would be completely hidden and provide a somewhat cozier and more discrete aesthetic.
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​To raise the chair, a single upward twisting movement is applied. Pegs and slots are used to guide the swiveling motion. The pegs then falls into a divot to lock the chair in an elevated position. To collapse the stool, the user first needs to pull to unlock it, then twist in the opposite direction. Gravity and the diagonal slots will force the stool to fall and close by itself.
ROUNDABOUT
THE FEATURES
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MECHANISM
The weight of the user is mostly supported by the brass pegs and screws. The pegs fit through slots in the aluminum cylinders, to guide the user in a twisting motion when raising the stool, and to lock it into place when fully extended. The pegs have 1/2-inch diameter flat heads to prevent them from slipping out of their 1/4-inch slots, and are threaded to host the screws.
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STORAGE
One of Roundabout’s most defining features is its ability to collapse vertically. All the aluminum cylinders stack within each other, allowing the stool to have a height no higher than 6 inches when compressed. Its low height when folded up, allows it to be slid under certain coffee tables for easy storage.
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COMFORT & AESTHETICS
A cushion was added to the top of the Roundabout for maximum comfort. The plum colour of the seat and the caramel-like coating of the wood give the stool a unique vintage feel.
THE PROTOTYPE
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In order to test the collapsible system and verify this could withstand the weight of a person, I created several high-fidelity prototypes of the loops, as lower fidelity models would not represent the final model's mechanism and material properties accurately. Therefore I used the same material I would eventually use for my final stool (5052 Aluminum). Making the loops with aluminium proved the twisting motion required to extend the stool and the telescoping feature functioned properly. However, the pegs I used in my first prototypes, which were 3D-printed parts with brass barbed threaded inserts placed inside a cavity in the peg, could not support the weight of a person. They were effective enough to prove my mechanism worked and would eventually bear enough weight when I made them out of brass.
Throughout my prototyping, I changed the design of the slots from a vertical cut to a diagonal one to improve the motion of unlocking the mechanism and tried several loop sizes in order to determine which provided the most stability and strength.
MAKING THE PROTOTYPE
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The wood seat and foot were cut using a lathe. The slots in the cylinders were cut out of sheet metal with the machine mill for the prototype. The final product’s slots were water-jet cut for precision. The sheet metal was then rolled and welded together. The brass pegs for the final stool were all individually made using the lathe.