TYPEFurniture
DATE 2018
LOCATION Houston, TX
COMPETITIONWinner
DESIGN LEAD
David Costanza
DESIGN TEAM Ekin Erar
Flat Stand was the winning proposal for the AIA Houston Model Stand competition in 2018. The AIA required a model stand for the many exhibitions it hosts in its downtown Houston space but lacked the room to store many model stands. Flat stand proposed a model stand that could be collapsed and stored flat rather than simply stacked.
The design utilizes a folding technique and polypropylene, a plastic that has the capacity to produce a live hinge, being bent back and forth without breaking. The geometry was inspired by the locking lid of a take-out box, in which the assembly process can be done using the flexure of the material without any tools or additional hardware. The process of design and development required numerous iterations in which the geometry, the material, the means of folding, and the connection systems were tested and developed. In the end, the ⅛” polypropylene selected was machined using a CNC and was assembled using flush hardware, allowing the entire cube to be folded entirely flat. Finally, the initial cube later inspired a proportionally taller 36” stand and a larger 30” cube.