Sofa Armchair Design

2019 | FURNITURE DESIGN | PROTOTYPING

Multi-purpose seating furniture designed for Building Experiences in Living Rooms

“People longed for more privacy but also wanted to ensure that home was a place that facilitated their most important relationships”

– IKEA Life at Home Report, 2017

The living room, traditionally a lounge room now serves both as a family space as well as a personal space. It is a place where the homeowners and family members gather to spend time together to build harmonious relationships that give ineluctable joy. The living room can also be a personal space in the sense that it provides a place to relax, unwind after a long day and allow one to enjoy his/her personal time. The question is, are we able to maintain those relationships while getting influenced by the way we interact with things in our home? In this world of technology, where everyone seems to be socially connected to people in far-off worlds, especially the younger generation, they are missing out on personal interactions with their elder family members.
Urbanization and technological advancements seem to pose a challenge to our traditional ways of running a household and to the relationships we forge. In today’s world, as we embrace technology, there is a need to cherish the love and relationships among people we share our home with so that we maintain the perfect balance between the two.

The design of our home and our spaces reflects our personalities and at the same time, these also subconsciously shape our life, emotions and thoughts. Recognizing the importance of meaningful interactions in building relationships and the necessity to strike a balance between privacy and family time, the aim of this project is to explore the living room space and design a system of seating furniture that enhance efficiency and overall user-experience. This armchair prototype is one aspect of the proposed idea.*

RESEARCH AND PROCESS

Methodology:
The type of research used in this study is both qualitative and quantitative and the focus was on the growing needs of the upper-middle class. Qualitative research, through the interview process, was used to gather traits of human behaviour and attempt to understand the reasons behind these traits. All demographics of people by age: Children, Parents, and Senior Citizens were interviewed. The aim was to understand how different families interact and to also understand the family members’ need for privacy. Personal and phone-call interviews were conducted with upper-middle-class families living in different cities of the country. Personal interviews were conducted by visiting the homes of some of these people to get a first-hand experience of their living room space and to better understand the quality of their family interactions. The research also tried to find out if there are any issues faced by these families.

Research Questions:

Describe your home and living room using adjectives, emotions, and experiences
What role does your age play in the ways you interact with your living room?
What difficulties do you face, being an elderly person?
In this world of technology, where everyone is on their phones and
tablets, do you think anything is missing from your living room?
Activities that you and your family indulge on a daily basis in your living room?
How much time do you spend in your living room?
If you could re-design it, how would you do it?
Do you have guests over often? Do you transform your living room to suit their needs? Why?
Lighting requirements - what lighting do you have in your living room

Interview Questions:

Q1. How would you describe your home-using adjectives, emotions and experiences?
Q2. How would you describe your living room using adjectives, emotions and experiences?
Q3. What all aspects/objects/subjects make your living room the way it is?
Q4. What role do you think your age plays in the way you interact with the living room? ( considering asking old people)
Q5. What difficulties do you usually face in your living room, being an elderly person?
Q6. In the world of technology, where everyone s either on their phones or tablets, what do you think is missing from your living room? Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
Q7. What are some of the things in your living room that completes your idea of a home?
Q8. Are there any objects/devices that you don’t use but still feel the need to keep around in the living room?
Q9. If yes, what are those and what is that need?
Q10. List some activities that you and your family indulge in on a daily basis in your living room.
Q11. Are there any other experiences that you would want to have in your living room?
Q12. How much time in a day do you spend in your living room?
Q13. If you could re-design your own living room now, how would you do it?
Q14. Do you have guests over often?
Q15. Do you transform your living room a certain way when guests have to visit?
Q16. How does that affect your social interaction?
Q17. Why do you think you have the urge to transform, add to or change your living room according to the guests?
Q18. Do you have any particular kind of lighting for your living room? How does it affect your mood?