A set of three chairs designed using reclaimed scaffolding boards from London and locally salvaged stone from Delhi come together to build a flat-pack solution. Tula, meaning ‘equilibrium’ or ‘balance’ in Sanskrit is inspired by the vernacular way of working with stone and wood known as kath-kuni construction; the two materials come in equilibrium with the help of tension cables in an attempt to stitch the two together. Within this act of counterbalancing the pieces create a playful assembly and question the cycle of material imbalances.
Stone: the foundational unit From Rajasthan and Haryana, India, Kund slate is a fine-grained metamorphic rock most readily used for flooring and roofing. Through sedimentation of dirt from a watercourse deposition, the stone develops a tonal variation of black, burgundy, violet, and grey. Used as a wedge, one of the six classical simple machines, the stone creates friction when inserted between two materials. Leveraging it’s high slip resistance, we’ve created a locking mechanism for the scaffolding boards to build a foundation for the assembly of the furniture line. Timber: the structural unit Scaffolding boards originating from European whitewood, are cut to standard sizes, 3.6cm thick and 22cm wide, with a variation in lengths dependent on the site of use. While cut to size, the boards are often unseasoned, seasoning naturally over use, their surface turns quite brittle while still holding some moisture within, often leading them to warp and form cracks at the centre of the plank over time. The chairs are designed so that all boards are cut from a running length of 120cm, one of the shortest standard lengths available for scaffolding boards. These profiles are further cut carefully, keeping the mentioned properties in mind, in an attempt to ensure they don’t split while using the entire length. Inspired by the vernacular way of working with stone and wood known as kath-kuni construction, the two materials come in equilibrium with the help of tension cables in an attempt to stitch the two together. Within this act of counterbalancing the pieces create a playful assembly and question the cycle of material imbalance.
