Durban Art Deco Society

DUT Prototype Art Deco Chair Exhibition 2016

As part of the Durban University of Technology's "Arts & Design Digital Festival", an exhibition of chairs designed by the Interior Design students was opened on 9th September, 2016. In collaboration with the Durban Art Deco Society, the theme was formulated around "Art Deco plus Digital", with the employment of modern digital techniques such as laser-cut flat-pack design (like IKEA), autoCAD, stop-frame assembly and 3-D rendered video presentations. A competition aspect was included with the Durban Art Deco Society judging the exhibits and presenting 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes.

The student project was outlined by Interior Design lecturer Michelle Hankinson as follows: "Working in conjunction with the Durban Art Deco society and Makerspace to design a chair: The themes that inspire the chair design are Art Deco and the digital age. This will be a project for the subjects, Interior Design, Design Theory and Presentation Methods. The students will be asked to design a flat pack chair. A laser-cut prototype will be manufactured and exhibited. In addition each student will produce a stop-frame animation of the chair which will comprise the exploded 2D parts which assemble to become a 360 degree rotating 3D rendered model. Finally a print poster with the chairs will be exhibited."