Iron Furniture Design · 2019
Karamba Stool
- A' Design Award 2019 Iron Winner in Furniture Design
- Awarded April 15, 2019
- CLIENT: MAGMA graphics
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 14,744
- Verification code EB2A294B31 · Verify this award
About Karamba Stool
Inspired by a pirate movie this stool looks like captain's treasure chest, where he can successfully hide his loot from the crew, disguised like a piece of furniture. Besides the drawer there are 2 hidden compartments to keep your treasures. Wooden body, ship ropes make the appearance more realistic, like an actual piece of captain's cabin. In a modern interior design this could be a really good accent in the room.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- Spherical shape is nothing unusual. The unique feature here is the rope and the way how it is attached to the legs and piercing the body.This piece of furniture has double function. It can be used as a stool and also for a storage container. Drawer opens and closes with a clicking mechanism. The stool have little rotatable wheels hidden in its legs.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Dimensions of the stool are 530 mm x 530 mm x 430 mm. Materials used: wood, ropes, furniture hardware
- Tags
- Stool, Karamba, Bulgaria, Magma, Graphics, Furniture, Design
- Production Technology
- Made of solid wood (or chipboard for cost saving version) it has colored ropes for decoration and to form the seat. The rope is attached to the legs by knots then it passes through the body and ends on top of it glued to the surface in the shape of spiral. There are four different ropes.
- Design Challenge
- The hardest part was to decide how to implement the ropes and knots in this furniture.
- Project Duration
- Project started 2 year ago and abandoned until bringing it back to life now. Total duration about 3 months.
- Operation Flow
- It's a storage container in the shape of stool with a drawer.
- Research
- Looking at pirate equipment, different kind of ropes and knots. Experimenting with the shape of the body and size of the legs.
- Inspiration
- Looking for unusual shape for a stool and in the same time to be functional. Inspired by movies the aim was to build something that looks like part of a ship equipment.
- Image Credits
- Vasil Velchev
Colors of Karamba Stool
Grand Interview about Karamba Stool
There are so many elements in this stool that refers to the pirate movies, like the ropes, the hidden compartments, the natural colors and materials.
The technical challenges using this rope was firstly where to punch the construction and where to be the path of the rope to create the seating part and then to end up tied to the legs.
My master degree in Electrical engineering was really helpful indeed. Despite the fact that there are no electrical parts here, the engineer way of thinking helped to solve lots of issues.
The spherical shape of this stool leaves a lot of empty unused space inside. So it could've been left as it is or transform it to something practical and interesting.
This stool is step aside from the traditional design. Obviously it is not for mass production. I dont think this could affect the design in any way. It's just my kind of visual expression.
Functionality and thematic design in this particular project should go hand by hand. The design ends when the practical restrictions come.
One of the most important lessons that i've learned that you need very carefully to think how the products should be produced. Otherwise it will remain only as an idea.
The design philosophy at MAGMA studio is constant transformation of the design idea from the very beginning to the end, and even after completion the project.
I really hope this design to encourage creating more thematic pieces of furniture and i am curious the design world can give us in this direction.
A specific users feedback about using decorative elements and considering everyday usability was about the materials strength.This lead to some slight but important modifications.