Why is this man smiling? Maybe there's something really funny hidden inside of the secret compartment in his corrugated cardboard stool. Maybe, having built an additional seat, he can invite that critical extra person over for dinner. Sam Tanis, a student at Otis College of Art and Design, created the "Annex Chair" for the American Association of Architecture Students' 2009 'Chair Affair' competition. Eighteen inches high and 14" wide, the chair is completely made of cardboard, though Tanis is contemplating using Masonite for a stronger seat/lid on future versions. Tanis writes:

The intention behind the ANNEX chair is the creation of additional seating that is light in weight ( just 2.25lbs., therefore easily transportable from room to room as its use is needed) and with a storage space housed within. To achieve this, the basic structural form is a 10” wide by 18” high cylinder with its flutes running perpendicular to the ground for strength, set around a removable lid/seat. But this left a precarious perch; a chair that is nearly twice as tall as it is wide. The width of the ANNEX would need to be increased, but any increase in width to the cylinder would cause a loss of compressive strength and the lid/seat would buckle when sat on. The problem was overcome by adding a 2” hollow ring around the outside of the structural cylinder, as shown in illustrations 5 and 6 bellow, so the overall diameter of the chair was increased to 14”. The construction of the ANNEX chair is fairly straightforward. Every component piece, with the exceptions of the lid/seat and base, are made up of single wall corrugated paper with one linerboard removed to create a flexible sheet. The only materials needed is that corrugated paper, a straightedge (at least 36“), a mat-knife, tape (to hold portions while gluing), a high-temp glue-gun (with glue sticks) and a clothes iron (for tightly laminating the lid/seat together with hot glue).

Brief instructions and a downloadable PDF instruction booklet after the jump.

The construction is as follows:

A lid/seat is created by laminating five circles of single wall corrugated paper together. The flutes are laid perpendicular to one another to prevent warping. The lamination was achieved by applying hot-glue to each round and then centering them together and using a hot clothes iron to re-melt the glue and adhere them. A sheet of corrugated paper is wrapped around the newly made lid and the seam is glued. A second sheet of corrugated paper is wrapped around the first and glued. The basic structural cylinder has been created. To create the width of 14”, strips of corrugated paper in descending heights are wrapped around the two layered sheets of corrugated paper and glued in place. "

Click here to download the ANNEX brochure Check out more corrugated chair designs at the AIAS Chair Affair site.

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