At first the supple moving chair concept seems to be state of the art and brilliant. But after a while when I imagined the world full of “supples,” the whole idea scared the hell out of me.
I guess the 19 year old engineering student from Iran might has never seen Pixar’s animation Wall-E. Or perhaps has never met anyone with overweight due to small amount of physical activities. Well, one might say the supple project generally encourages being sluggish. Quite surprising…
Anyway, the supple is a kind of wheelchair, though not precisely for the disabled (or at least not yet disabled…). It’s meant to be used by anyone. The chair’s design is really cool and good looking. The movement system is based on a huge spherical wheel located beneath the seat which according to the designer should allow to glide in any direction.
But all these does not make it much different from a normal office chair on wheels. The supple’s idea includes something else, it’s an AGV (automatic guide vehicle). That means the chair doubles as a single-seated mean of transportation which is supposed to take the seater anywhere he points on the map. That’s possible because the console is obviously GPS-enabled and the machine is equipped with powerful hardware. Clever, huh? Not at all to be honest… I really don’t mind walking, running or riding a bike.
What’s more, the chair works as a kind of transformer as there are various modes in which it can be used, stored or transported. Two supples make for a motorcycle and the combination of four together might even work as a car. The supple project was submitted to Michelin Challenge Design by Mohamad Sadegh Samakoush. I just hope Michelin Man was not Mohamad’s biggest inspiration…
Interested in cool furniture designs? See the shair concept or 24 bizzare nerdy chairs.
Via: Michelin Challenge Design / Dvice
