Ben Elliot’s Xchair is a lounge chair that he designed based on his ongoing metaverse project called Metaone. Xchair is a hybrid object that is a direct result of Metaone’s sensory exploration of XR landscapes.
The chair’s design borrows from the curves and spectral horizon lines of Metaone’s four virtual environments (SHAPE, DEEP, INFINITE and ZEN), incorporating them into its lines and shape. Nagami, a pioneer design company specializing in 3D printing projects crafted with recycled polymer materials, created Xchair in an on-demand collaboration scheme.
The futuristic chair serves as a gateway connecting the digital with the physical at the core of one’s home or living room portal. The chair’s ergonomic design is responsive to the ever-increasing multiplicity of future domestic practices, including working, eating, and resting, in the face of digital devices and XR tools.
Xchair’s L-shaped object features curvy lines that coalesce in layers and whose cantilevered core functions as a spring, ensuring dynamic sitting. Its grainy texture resembles that of a sensual surface intimately enveloping the body, while its “elastic” nature allows for constant evolution of its shape. Xchair’s design activates ideas of liquefaction, fluidity, and data immersion at the interplay between the solid and the liquid. It provides a glimpse into future lifestyles, both preserved and renewed.
