A special component of the 3rd Nanhai Art Field (2026)，the public seating project titled Chair with You was initiated by Sun Qian, Initiator and Chief Curator of the Art Field China Project, and curated by Julia Zhu, architectural documentary producer and founder of the architecture-and-culture media platform i-Talk. Fourteen architect teams were invited to design permanent seating pieces in both grounded and movable forms. Corresponding to the twelve distinctive water villages of Nanhai, the works integrate artistic installations with public seating facilities, fostering connections between people and the water landscape while offering an immersive experience of the unique fishing and farming scenery in the Lingnan Region. The project officially opens in Foshan on July 17, 2026.
Design Coherence
In 2015, Atelier FCJZ collaborated with QM Home to create the Bend It Like Yoga furniture collection, which represents an in-depth reflection and further development of the hot-bending process of the plywood – a classic craft in modern furniture-making. The collection uses thermally bent plywood panels that are integrally formed without any joints. Bent plywood is much lighter yet stronger than solid wood, with inherent elasticity that fully meets the comfort requirements for seating. The design team experimented with various bending forms to push this craft to its extreme.
Architects often begin furniture design by studying the inherent properties of materials, unlocking their latent performance through design techniques to explore broader possibilities. The public seating design for the Nanhai Art Field has offered the perfect opportunity for such innovative exploration.
The Nanhai Art Field required a public seating facility for outdoor environment. Given Lingnan's year-round high temperature and humidity, durability became the top priority for material selection, while comfort and artistic expression were also fully considered. Stainless steel boasts excellent corrosion resistance and easy maintenance. Thin steel plates are inherently flexible, elastic, and boast excellent ductility and formability. In a sense, stainless steel shares remarkably similar properties with bent plywood. The fusion of seemingly contradictory attributes — "softness" and "steel" — sparked our interest in stainless steel, which became the core starting point of the design.
Structural Properties
A sheet of paper lies flat on the table can stand upright on its own once folded. Similarly, after a stainless steel plate is bent into a curved profile, it forms a stable, independent structural system without auxiliary components such as tension bars or vertical ribs. The Drunken Chair is supported by three curved stainless steel plates leaning against one another, enabling loads to transfer across the panels and distribute forces collectively. The seat panel is suspended at the downside. The backrest fits closely with the sunshade baffle while reserving an elastic gap that generates cushioning rebound when bearing weight. This elastic space for flexible deformation endows the chair not only with a comfortable sitting experience but also adds distinctive interactive playfulness.