SleepBox

SleepBox

SleepBox is a contemporary and organic piece of furniture, designed for the demands of an increasingly urbanized environment. It is a sinuous life-sized object which creates a place of comfort and relaxation within airports, offices or other semi-public spaces, providing peace and quiet in busy urban environments. The solid, smooth and uniform shell is made of HI-MACS, and contains a leather covered mattress.

The project was designed by Caspar Lohner at the Chair for Computer Aided Architectural Design, Department of Architecture, ETH Zurich, supervised by Mathias Bernhard and Manuel Kretzer and produced in collaboration with Klausler Acrylstein AG. The free-form shell is made from HI-MACS, an extremely robust material that can also be thermoformed and visually seamlessly connected.

Caspar Lohner was in charge of each stage - from design to fabrication - of his first project using Solid Surfaces. He was both managing the project but also producing it with a team of students from the Department of Architecture, ETH Zurich with constant assistance of Klausler Acrylstein, who supported with their expertise and technical resources.

The necessary MDF moulds were produced on a three axis CNC milling machine at ETH Zurich's in-house facilities Raplab. The flat HI-MACS sheets then were thermoformed into shape using a vacuum membrane press. After the material cools down it exhibits the same properties as before and can be further processed in a similar way to wood. The eleven individual pieces were finally glued together to create a single seamless homogeneous object.

SleepBox will be exhibited from January 17 through 21 at Swissbau 2012, the most important meeting point for the construction and real-estate industry in Switzerland and one of the biggest specialist exhibitions in Europe.

Photos: Manuel Kretzer