DT LOUNGE CHAIR (DTLC)

The DT Lounge Chair is part of the DOVETAIL series, a family of furniture developed from the sliding dovetail joint.

The chair is made from 15 solid wood parts. Each piece connects through precisely shaped hidden sliding dovetails. There are no screws, metal fasteners or plastic components. Wood connects to wood, and the geometry of the joint holds the object together.

DOVETAIL begins with a traditional woodworking connection and develops it into a system. The joint is not applied to a finished design. It becomes the starting point for the design itself, determining how the parts meet, how forces are transferred, how the object is assembled and, ultimately, how it takes form.

In the DT Lounge Chair, this logic is largely concealed once the chair is assembled. The finished object appears simple, while its construction is a composition of 15 interdependent elements, each shaped in relation to the others.

The chair can be assembled, disassembled and assembled again. Its parts can travel flat, making the object easier to transport and allowing it to move with its owner. Individual elements can also be replaced if damaged, extending the life of the object rather than requiring the whole chair to be discarded.

For AKO, furniture is small architecture. The same questions of structure, material, connection, assembly and use that shape a building can shape an object.

The DT Lounge Chair is not simply held together by its joints. It is designed from them.

Photography: Justin Allen and Ksenia Vauchskaia