Bouncy Layers is a minimalist furniture collection created by Tokyo-based designer Nendo. The collection designed for the exhibition “Home Living Boundless Design” hosted by KUKA, a furniture company based in Hangzhou, China. The theme given to Nendo was ‘intelligence’, and the characteristics of KUKA is a range of upholstered sofas and lounge chairs. These made the designers focus on an intrinsic value of softness, and decide to take a different approach in expressing soft, comfortable furniture.

To push the boundaries of comfort, rather than using standard padding materials such as urethane foam, cotton, plumage or springs or indeed cushions, they encouraged to use 1.5mm thick polycarbonate sheets, whose softness can be changed through lamination and how it is bent. Depending on the amount of space between laminated layers softness can be altered; with decreased curvature comes increased stiffness. In this way furniture can be made that is soft at the point of human contact but strong at top board and the joint of the frame.

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