Could this be IKEA 2.0? "This Stool Rocks" is a Kickstarter project for a stool with rocking functionality. But perhaps the most revolutionary design isn't the stool itself, James McBennet from Fabsie wants to take the flat-pack furniture industry to the next level.
Imagine a piece of manufactured furniture in consumers hands in different parts of the world, it has the exact same specifications whether it be in New York, Vancouver, or Kuwait. Think about how this result is accomplished now. The product is made in a factory in china, or sweden, the raw materials are transported to the factory before they are made into the product. Then the furniture is shipped, allbeit in most examples the furniture is flat packed and "enviro-friendly" but even in this model there are technologies now to help us do this better.
Now imagine that same stool, made out of local wood, from a local manufacturer, with minimal distance to your doorstep. That is the idea Fabsi proposes with "This Stool Rocks, and they have already made inroads to having "Makers" in London, Dublin, San Francisco and New York. The crowd-funds from Kickstarter will help James find more CNC machine owners and create a network of makers to bring the manufacturing closer to the customer.
This idea is bigger than just a stool, it pushes against conventional thinking by asking, flat-packed furniture has gotten us this far, what's next?
The surprising part is you can have the design for free, the design file is available on the kickstarter page and you can make one if you have your own CNC machine. Also if you have you own machine, consider becoming a maker For those needing a stool made will need to put forth £35 not a bad price to pay to be an early adopter in the flat-pack furniture revolution.
