A Softly Winded Chair | Faysal Tabbarah (Architecture + Other Things)

Faysal Tabbarah’s A Softly Winded Chair dramatically contrasts its underlying chaotic structure, formed from found tree branches, with the precise engineering of the pliable knitted textiles that wrap around this. In doing so, it offers a thought-provoking blurring of natural and synthetic materials. A Softly Winded Chair consists of a bundle of fallen branches sourced from around the United Arab Emirates which have subsequently been clad in the Apparel textile from Kvadrat Febrik. Each branch has been digitally scanned and analysed to ensure that it is suitable for its load-bearing function – it is otherwise left untouched. The flexible knitted textiles hold the seat in shape while still allowing the contours of the branches to appear in all their natural variability.

Faysal Tabbarah (Architecture + Other Things)

Faysal Tabbarah is an educator, architect and co-founder of Architecture + Other Things, an experimental studio based in UAE that aims to develop alternative, research-based design and building methods. An associate professor of architecture at the American University of Sharjah, he explores the potential of Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) environmental techniques to drive innovative building solutions, focusing particularly on contextual modes of production and material systems.