THE SOUTHERN CULTURE CHAIR

The Southern Culture chair is a furniture piece created through a modified design process influenced by southern U.S. culture. As someone who grew up in the rural south, Spanish Fort Alabama, I wanted to create a piece of furniture that presents a specific system of influence in southern culture; the nuclear, heterosexual marriage between husband and wife. The chair I created shows the collaboration between these roles and how it creates the classic southern culture atmosphere within homes in the south.

Process

To the right shows the process of making the chair. The wife’s role in making the soft goods, or “humanizing” the chair, and the husbands role of solving the initial problem defined of needing a chair. The oversized pillow is made of a beige flannel material. I first made long strips that were weaved into a basket pattern to create the front outside. The back is a soft, beige fleece. The wooden frame is made up of 2x6 planks screwed together and cut to size. Both of these processes fall in line with the southern culture design process

To get a more in depth explanation of these roles and how they interact scroll below for a more in depth analysis!

Sketches

These are some of the initial form sketches for the chair, including some of the possible dimensions for the wooden frame. To the bottom left is a series of sketches and iterations of everyday products and items that I put through my modified design process centered around southern culture.