Architecture inspires an emerging furniture designer.

Josh Carmody is a young furniture designer to watch.

Trading under josh.c, the Masters student of Architecture allows his studies to influence his upbeat designs.

His smiley face logo sums up the appeal of his wooden work – humble, sturdy and functional wooden designs which showcase his carpentry skills.

The ‘Legless’ stool is one such design – a tri-legged stool, which balances on two legs joining to form a base with a humorous appeal injected into the name.

“This ‘Legless’ concept is a fun little design, which I hope could have some success,” says Carmody.

“Honestly, my influences come from anywhere and anything.   

“Architecture is probably a main influence which is evident in a few of my designs including ‘Legless’, which I recently realised, bears a structural resemblance and even a resemblance in form to Rem Koolhaas’s CCTV building in Beijing.”  

But anything can spark an idea. 

“Legless stool came directly out of my sketch book. I was messing around trying to design something different to anything I had seen before. 

“I began deconstructing previous sketches, trying to imagine for example – ’what would happen if I moved this leg here or took this leg away completely?’

“’How could I make that stand up or structurally sound enough to sit on?’ And almost straight away the form of the legless stool took shape. 

The joinery techniques, which are designed to make the chair stand firm, took much longer to develop than the form.

“My signature style would be the way that I blend modern forms and designs with modified versions of traditional joinery techniques such as dovetail joints – inturn creating furniture which is nice to look at and to use, but will also last for generations.”

So far ’Legless’ has made the shortlist of SF2010 at Bungedore Woodworks Gallery, where it will be on display from 23 January until mid April.

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