CH(AI)R: ADVANCING FURNITURE DESIGN THROUGH ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE CRAFTSMANSHIP

Abstract

This design case examines two interconnected designs: the design of a senior-level interior design studio course and the design of the speculative furniture artifact, Ch(AI)r, that emerged within that course. The studio was structured to engage generative artificial intelligence as a grounding perspective that shaped how students explored spatial, material, and conceptual possibilities. Within this context, Ch(AI)r developed from a sequence of poetic prompts submitted to platforms such as Midjourney and DALL·E, which produced visual cues that were interpreted, tested, and reimagined through hands-on prototyping. The resulting artifact is a luminous, bristle-skinned chair that invites sensory interaction while illustrating how AI-generated imagery can inform material and perceptual strategies. Beyond the artifact itself, the case describes how the course was intentionally designed to position AI as a creative collaborator and a site of critical inquiry. Students examined aesthetic tendencies, authorship questions, and issues of feasibility while documenting their iterative decisions. Ambiguity, failure, and refinement became productive forces in both the instructional design and the development of the chair. Rather than presenting AI as the motivation for the work or as the basis for a research study, this manuscript uses AI as the conceptual frame through which the two designs evolved. The case focuses on how structured experimentation, reflective judgment, and material translation supported learning within a studio environment informed by emerging generative tools.