In contemporary furniture making, few objects are as familiar or as quietly demanding as the chair. It is something we encounter daily, often without notice, yet the right design can still stop us mid-stride. For Bodiam Foundry, the Accord Chair was conceived in the woodworking studio as a response to that tension. Among the most commonplace pieces of furniture, the chair remains one of the hardest to get right, and one of the most powerful when it is.
Rather than treating it as a purely functional object, the studio approached the chair as an opportunity to create a moment of recognition. The aim was not novelty for its own sake, but to find a form that feels both unexpected and immediately legible, a design that holds attention through proportion, surface, and presence. In doing so, the project became a careful study of how bodies meet objects, and how contemporary tools can be used to deepen, rather than dilute, the traditions of making.
Problem: Softness Without Padding
The brief began with an apparent contradiction: how to design a chair without upholstery that nevertheless feels yielding, even generous, to the body. The absence of cushions or applied softness placed pressure squarely on geometry. Comfort, in this case, would need to be embedded into the structure itself, into curvature, transition, and proportion.
Rather than defaulting to established ergonomic templates, the studio approached the chair as a spatial negotiation between human anatomy and material resistance. The question was not how a chair supports the body, but how it makes room for it. Where does the spine want to settle? Where should pressure dissolve rather than accumulate? The resulting ambition was subtle but exacting: a solid wood chair that appears firm, yet receives the sitter with a sense of accommodation rather than opposition.
Exploration: Designing With the Machine
Alongside questions of comfort and form ran a parallel investigation into process. The chair became an opportunity to explore how machines could be meaningfully integrated into a craft-led woodworking studio. Rather than outsourcing production or simplifying the design to suit existing tools, Bodiam Foundry built its own CNC system in-house, a 3.5-axis machine developed specifically to support the way the studio works.
The goal was not speed for its own sake, nor the replacement of hand skills, but precision and control. The machine allowed the studio to test complex curves and continuous surfaces that would be difficult to achieve consistently by hand, while also reducing material waste and unnecessary repetition. It became a tool for exploration rather than efficiency alone.
This approach opened up new formal possibilities. The chair’s flowing surfaces, particularly through the seat and backrest, depend on subtle shifts in curvature that require both accuracy and restraint. Each adjustment was guided by how the body might move across the surface, rather than by what the machine could easily produce. The technology followed the design, not the other way around.
Solution: A Chair That Responds
The finished chair reflects this balance between control and softness. Its form is sculptural, but not expressive for its own sake. The backrest curves inward gently, offering support while leaving space for movement. The seat is shaped to receive weight evenly, encouraging the body to settle rather than perch. From certain angles, the chair appears almost firm, even austere, yet its comfort becomes apparent through use rather than display.
Material choice reinforces this restraint. Although made in India, the chair was produced in a European wood species selected for its stability, grain, and familiarity within the context of Milan Design Week, where the piece was first presented. The decision was practical and contextual, allowing the chair to adapt naturally to its intended environment while maintaining a clear material language.
What results is a chair that feels considered rather than resolved too quickly. Its complexity lies beneath the surface, in the calibration of curves and proportions, and in the quiet collaboration between human judgment and machine precision. It is a solution shaped as much by listening as by making
Reflection: Craft, Augmented
The Accord Chair stands as a quiet statement about how the studio approaches making. It reflects a belief that machines and hand skills do not sit in opposition, but can work together when used with intention. In this case, technology becomes a way to extend precision and explore form more deeply, without separating the maker from the material or the process.
The chair does not seek attention through spectacle. Its strength lies in careful adjustment rather than overt expression, in the way surfaces meet the body, and in how tools are chosen and applied. It is an object shaped by patience, rewarding both the time spent making it and the time spent living with it. In that sense, its most progressive quality is also its most familiar: a sense that every decision has been considered, and nothing has been added without reason.
At Bodiam Foundry, we are often exploring custom projects shaped around specific moments, needs, or ideas. For enquiries, please contact customprojects@bodiamfoundry.com.