ChaTaT Bench

• Prize
  Honorable Mention in Furniture Design
• Company/Firm
  Furbershaworks
• Designer
  Gerard Furbershaw
• Photo Credit
  Rick English
• Location
  Palo Alto California USA
• Project Date
  May 2021
• Web URL
  view

The ChaTaT Bench is a new take on the two-century old loveseat concept. Named after a combination of the word chat and TaT, the acronym for the French term tête-à-tête, the ChaTaT enables two people to converse face-to-face by sitting on opposite sides of the bench. The seating surfaces at the ends are angled off the horizontal plane in opposing directions. This twisted seating surface communicates the bench’s intent of fostering face-to-face interactions. The twist angle is minimal enough to also accommodate a conventional seating configuration for one person or two.

The ChaTaT Bench has a computer numerically controlled (CNC) machined polyurethane foam core covered with a fiberglass/carbon fiber skin. It can be used indoors as well as outdoors in pool and garden settings.

Bio
As a cofounder of Lunar Design (now part of McKinsey Design), I experienced the impact industrial design has in making companies successful and helping society. Now that I’ve entered the second phase of my career, I’m thrilled to have found my calling through the expression of my artistic sensibilities in the pursuit of design art primarily in the furniture domain.