This Furniture Trick Makes Flat Wood Look Curved With Zero Waste - Yanko Design

"Have you ever wondered why ergonomic furniture costs so much? Here's a secret: creating curves that actually fit the human body is ridiculously complicated. Our bodies are all soft lines and organic shapes, but transforming hard materials like wood into those comfortable contours usually requires serious craftsmanship, expensive machinery, or both. Designer Minhwan Kim just cracked this puzzle in the most elegant way possible, and the design world is taking notice."

"The genius of Layer lies in how it rethinks an old problem. Traditional curved furniture typically means either steam-bending wood (labor-intensive and temperamental) or carving from solid blocks (hello, massive waste). Some designers have experimented with parametric structures, which use flat sheets cut into specific patterns that can be assembled into three-dimensional curves. It sounds perfect in theory, but there's a catch. These designs often waste huge amounts of material because the cutting patterns don't efficiently use the available sheet space."

"Kim's approach flips this wasteful equation. Layer uses an optimized parametric system that minimizes material waste while creating furniture that looks like it was sculpted rather than assembled. The process starts by digitally breaking down a 3D curved surface into individual layers. Think of it like those topographic maps that show elevation through contour lines, except here each line becomes a physical piece of wood. These intersection curves are then aligned and processed into solid wood components that stack together to create the final form."

Layer, designed by Minhwan Kim, won Red Dot's Best of the Best 2025 for rethinking curved furniture production. The project converts 3D curved surfaces into dozens of precisely cut thin wooden layers that stack to form sculptural seats without molding or carving. The process uses an optimized parametric system to map intersection curves, align them, and process them into solid wood components that fit together with high material efficiency. The method avoids steam-bending labor and carving waste, reduces offcuts common to prior parametric patterns, and produces fluid organic forms while minimizing material waste and manufacturing complexity.

Read at Yanko Design - Modern Industrial Design News