A Study on Characteristics of Making Process of Bentwood Furniture

The bentwood technique was introduced for the Windsor chair for the first time in the 18th Century. It was Michael Thonet who produced the bentwood chair in Austria around the 1870's, and it has changed the perception of architects and designers since then. The bentwood chair suggested a new and eccentric way of manufacturing furniture and the process of producing materials for it. Moreover, the method of furniture assembling, with screw nails, made a positive contribution not only to the convenience of transport and distribution of furniture to anywhere in the world, but also to the development of mass production of furniture for the multitudes. The bentwood technique of Michael Thonet was developed much further by Alvar Aalto, who inferred a soft curve from nature and developed the beauty of modern laminated bentwood by using birch, a plentiful resource of Finland. This study will help us to understand the functions and process of bentwood furniture, and help to develop technical skills for diverse furniture design. It will also confirm that diverse bentwood furniture design will be possible by applying materials, technical skills and the design process of bentwood according to the characteristics and concept of furniture design.

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