The Alififair wing chair designed by Ryland Quillen, a student at Savannah College of Art and Design, was selected by an online voting poll as the winner of the Project UDesign competition.
Century Furniture will manufacture the new wing chair with a finished frame from sustainably harvested and certified woods. The chair will be available for purchase by consumers in 2011. Quillen will receive a royalty for each unit of the chair Century sells. He also won a $1,000 prize from Cargill's BiOH polyols business, the sponsor of the competition.
“I thought about the concept of a wing chair, the wings providing comfort and a sense of enclosure. I realized, however, that if the wings are too imposing, they can block vision to the right and left when sitting in the chair. To cope with this, I decided to employ cut-outs, creating a window large enough to see to either side when sitting. The gently swooping curve on either side suggests the feeling of warmth and comfort without hindering sight. The legs on the chair are tapered and shown in dark mahogany,” said Quillen.
Click to watch Quillen's video interview.
“Using sustainable materials in my design not only makes my chair earth-conscious, but also means that my piece will stand the test of time and become an heirloom passed through future generations," he said.
