Harmony Chair
Harmony Chair from Audrey Buck
Harmony Chair

In this project, I explored the concept of musical harmony by creating a chair installation. My partner and I worked to design a chair that translated our research of the relationship between music and color and of two part harmony into a useful object.
We ended up creating two similar, yet slightly, different lounge chairs that interlocked and formed a canopy above each other. This interlocking nature is representative of harmony in music and the way two parts, instruments, or voices come together to form one whole. The colors were incorporated because of the scientific evidence that color affects the same areas of the brain that music does. Red and orange were specifically chosen because of the strong effect they have on human emotion. Red has a powerful, invigorating effect on the human mind, and it also raises the heart rate. Orange has an uplifting effect that makes the viewer feel happy and cheerful.

Harmony Chair displayed at the First-Year Architecture gallery showing. It's structural soundness was tested by a multitude of professors and students; it held their weight every time.
Model describing possible connection between seat and back slats.
Model describing the implemented joint between back and seat slats.
Early model at 1"=1' scale depicting the interdependence and connectivity of the chairs. This model includes three chairs, but the design was later simplified to two for clarification of the concept.
Model of the installation at 1"=1' scale.
Model of the installation at 1"=1' scale.
Photo-montage placing the Harmony Chair in a museum lobby to be used as education about music as well as lounge seating.
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Axonometric of chair number one, the orange chair - graphite, colored pencil.
Axonometric of chair number two, the red chair - graphite, colored pencil.
Plan of harmony chair - graphite.
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Harmony Chair

In this project, I explored the concept of musical harmony by creating a chair installation. My partner and I worked to design a chair that translated our research of the relationship between music and color and of two part harmony into a useful object.
We ended up creating two similar, yet slightly, different lounge chairs that interlocked and formed a canopy above each other. This interlocking nature is representative of harmony in music and the way two parts, instruments, or voices come together to form one whole. The colors were incorporated because of the scientific evidence that color affects the same areas of the brain that music does. Red and orange were specifically chosen because of the strong effect they have on human emotion. Red has a powerful, invigorating effect on the human mind, and it also raises the heart rate. Orange has an uplifting effect that makes the viewer feel happy and cheerful.

Audrey Buck
Architecture Student State College, PA