This article was taken from the September 2011 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
Forget flat-pack: the future of furniture is inflatable steel. That's the vision of Oskar Zieta, a Polish designer who uses the technique to make resilient pieces such as ladders, chairs and stools. And his latest, the Tatarak coat stand, can be blown up at home with little more than a bicycle pump.
This product (which you can see in our gallery) uses three small rolls of stainless-steel sheet that look more like a Fruit Roll-Ups than designer décor. But pump air into the small valves, and the metal unfurls into an elegantly contorted coat stand. "We call it
'controlled loss of control'," explains Zieta. "It means every piece is one of a kind."
An architect by training, Zieta, who is 36, developed the FiDU (Free Inner Pressure Deformation) process while studying techniques for stabilising sheet metal at ETH Zurich. Steel sheets as thin as 1mm are cut into 2D shapes and layered on top of each other. The edges are then sealed with a laser welder. To inflate, pressurised air (ranging between 0.1 and 50Bar) is pumped in via a valve, forcing the metal to expand. Unlike the hydroforming method used in automobile manufacturing, FiDU doesn't use a mould, so the metal deforms according to its natural characteristics. "We can predict how the deformed object will look by the geometry of the cut, the pressure level, and the anisotropy [innate directional properties] of the material," Zieta explains. The result is both lightweight and remarkably strong. The Plopp stool (above right), an early (award-winning) FiDU piece, can support more than two tonnes. His team is already exploring other applications for the process, including bridges and an ultra-lightweight wind rotor, and testing the technique with other metals, such as aluminium and copper.
For Zieta, even the sky isn't the limit. "My dream project is constructions in space, where FiDU's ultra-lightness and possibilities of volumetric expansion could be crucial," he says.
And you thought inflatable furniture was just for pool parties.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
