Index
Side profile of the Waffle Chair in a room, showcasing its ergonomic curve and plywood construction.
Design

Waffle Chair

Creating complex ergonomic curves from flat plywood using digital fabrication.

Daniel Voshart ·

…most comfortable chair in my 10 years as a visiting critic.

Tom Deacon, a designer for Keilhauer

Designed for a furniture course at the University of Toronto, the Waffle Chair tackles the challenge of creating a complex, ergonomic curve from flat plywood. The shape was digitally sliced into an interlocking grid of profiles, which were then fabricated using tools selected for each specific task.

Nesting diagram for the Waffle Chair CNC parts, sheet 1Nesting diagram for the Waffle Chair CNC parts, sheet 2
The CNC nesting diagrams for milling the chair components from standard plywood sheets.

Fabrication Process

For the seat and back, nearly 100 thin 1/8” ribs were laser-cut. For the structural 5/8” frame, a CNC router was used to carve the stronger, thicker components. This combination of techniques creates a surface that is both flexible and supportive.

The numbered ribs were precisely slotted together by hand.
Thin plywood ribs slotted together by hand, forming the chair.