Wood has always been used for structural purposes and is common across all phases of construction. In addition to pillars, beams and roofs, wood is also used to shape, as frames, coverings and furniture.

Furniture design has always used wood as its main element and for the development of this new collection of seats, Studio Paulo Kobylka sought out proposals that could maximize the resistance of this material while minimizing its weaknesses.

One of the first problems that happen with wooden furniture, mainly chairs, is fitting the pieces. Usually, the joints between legs and seat is the most susceptible to breakage or disengagement.

Aiming to tackle this issue, we found a solution in structural engineering, or in the construction design of wooden trusses, to be more specific.

A truss is a structure formed by triangular shapes composed of straight elements with ends connected by points named knots.

To lock the knots of a wooden truss, the fitting ends can either be tighten by screws, or reinforced by gusset plate, which is a metallic plate where the wood pieces are screwed in order to make the whole set more rigid.

For this new collection, we explored a reinterpretation of the gusset plate applied to furniture design. The turned wooden legs are fit into the tubular profiles and are screwed to them. This way the joints between backrest, seat and legs are more resistant.

The union of the metallic structure with solid pieces of wood results in a strong and robust collection.

This new project includes the PK12 chair, PK13 armchair, PK14 bench and PK15 sofa. All pieces are produced by hand.

The metallic structure is carbon steel and receives automotive paint. The solid wood pieces are made of jequitibá, a tree native to the Brazilian Atlantic Forest.

In addition to the natural looking finish of the wood with matte polyurethane varnish, there is the ebonized version and upholstered options.