Swapnil Jadhav

'Futago' is the Japanese term for twins.

The stool splits into two identical stools in an unexpected manner. While they are together they work as a single complete object and then perform the same function despite being split into two separate forms. 

Concept
My initial idea came from assembling a set of very simple geometric forms into a nesting object. Despite the simple nature of the basic shapes the object was able to elicit a significant amount of surprise and joy when being handled.  

Inspiration :  
FROM ANIME - As my source for the inspiration metaphor “transformation as surprise” I chose the HAYAO MIYAZAKI  movie ‘Spirited away’ and all the moments from the movie where the protagonist 'Chihiro' is surprised by random acts of magical transformation. 

'Spirited away' is a story about a ten year old girl who while moving to a new neighborhood with her parents, enters into an alternate reality inhabited by spirits, monsters and gods. When her parents are transformed into pigs, as a punishment for being gluttons, by the witch Yubaba; Chihiro takes a job working in Yubaba’s bathhouse to find a way to free herself and her parents and to escape back to the human world.
 

FROM TRADITION - The traditional aesthetic goal was IKI. “IKI is a traditional aesthetic ideal of human behavior or volition in Japan, roughly “chic, stylish”. The basis of 'IKI' is thought to have formed among urbane commoners in Edo in the Tokugawa period. Iki is sometimes misunderstood as simply  “anything Japanese”, but it is actually a specific
aesthetic ideal, distinct from more ethereal notions of transcendence or poverty.” (Wikipedia)




 

Process
The next step was taking that idea to Solidworks to work out functional details like size, ability to hold weight while at the same time being easy to manipulate. After which I built a full scale prototype in MDF to make sure the idea worked. The full scale model was a way to test the idea for feasibility and scale. It also let me to test for failure states and make appropriate adjustments for the final model. 
Some lesson learned from the process were about joinery and connections between each of the individual triangular sections. That said other problems showed up in the final prototype that weren't an issue in the MDF model.

The final prototype was built in wood using ‘Sapele’ and ‘White Maple’. I used a combination of dovetail joints and domino joints to assemble the final. 
Unlike the MDF model the final model had to deal with inherent properties of working in solid wood. Wood stretches, twists and bends based on the nature of the grain and the corresponding cuts made to the wood.  Using two different types of wood to make one piece led to some last minute adjustments to make the piece work as intended. 
 
The outer surfaces of the diagonal pieces were laminated with white and blue laminate that would be visible only while the stool was being transformed and in that way are a representation of the IKI aesthetic.