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Wasatch Design Collective

Students: Brigham Young University
Faculty Advisor: David Morgan & Richard Fry

Flex Lamp
Karinne Rogers

Flex Lamp
Karinne Rogers

Using a specific cut pattern, a single sheet of plywood can be bent to mimic the folding tessellation of a stacked octahedron. The Flex Lamp is the crossroads between the rigid properties of plywood and the flexible nature of urethane resin. This composite is strong yet transparent, which holds promise for other applications in the built environment.

Flex Chair
Zoe Chambers, Elliott Bliss, Joshua Seibert, and Daniel Ames

Flex Chair
Zoe Chambers, Elliott Bliss, Joshua Seibert, and Daniel Ames

The Flex Chair is an origami-inspired design that utilizes the team’s latest research in compliant materials to achieve a design that can be manufactured out of a single sheet of plywood and folded into the final shape. This design facilitates rapid manufacturability, flexibility, and even reversibility of the form. Due to its flat-foldability, the chair takes up little space when stored, moved, or shipped. The compliant mechanism used in the project are Lamina Emergent Torsion or LET joints. Instead of the plywood being bent, the many plywood “bars” in between the cuts of the joint are being twisted, allowing an overall bend in the material. The chair is strong, lightweight, and has natural finish on one side and color on the other.