The Levitating Chair
I first saw tensegrity a few years ago, but it wasn’t until last summer that I rediscovered it. I don’t remember if it was a Tik Tok or Youtube video, but I was immediately entranced by it. I wondered how it worked.
I got more and more excited by it the more I looked into it. Even though I wasn’t a Shift creator at the time, I knew that tensegrity would be a great thing to explore as a creator.
Luckily enough, I joined Shift that Fall, and immediately started brainstorming ideas of my own tensegrity design. My research found that tensegrity is a structural principle that balances tension and compression to create seemingly levitating structures. While the picture above may make it hard to see, there are strings that secure the top and bottom parts, in the middle and around the edge. Those strings support the weight of the top part, and also prevent it from tilting. This creates an unstable equilibrium.
While there are certainly lots of tensegrity designs out there, I still wanted to make my own. I figured I would start with a small stand and then work my way up to a fully functioning chair.
Here’s a picture of the stand I made. I designed it on SolidWorks. I wanted to make it organic, and since it was designed to support a plant, I wanted the design to be somewhat plant-like.
This CAD model was a lot of fun to make, and the only last step is to 3D print it and tie the strings on. Unfortunately, it’s been a struggle finding a suitable 3D printer around campus. Once I find a 3D printer that is affordable and the right size, I’ll be happy to see it come to life.
With that on hold, I decided to move onto the chair. I kept it simpler, since I didn’t want to overcomplicate the construction.
This is the CAD model I have so far, and it’s pretty much complete. My next steps are to construct a mock up out of cardboard, and then buy the wood to build the real thing! I’m planning on doing that over the summer.
Overall, this past year has been pretty good. I’m happy with the skills I’ve developed using SolidWorks, and I look forward to being able to start building things hands on.
A Quick Bio
My name is Colter Korsmoe. I’m a Mechanical Engineering student at the University of Michigan, with a double minor in Art & Design and Entrepreneurship. I’m interested in pursuing Design Engineering, and I’m really passionate about creating things from scratch and building physical products.
