
Minimum-Affordance Side Chair
Chairs are difficult to build when compared to other furniture. Nomadic Furniture, a book otherwise replete with good, simple plans for quality do-it-yourself furniture, equivocates on the issue of chairs: "We think that 'dining' chairs, which also work as desk chairs, can be bought cheaply enough...so that you should not try to build one." (p.11) Although the book and its sequal do include several more-or-less successful plans for chairs, these are all of the "lounge" variety, and would serve poorly as dining chairs. Lounges are not expected to be as mobile as dining chairs; they can be difficult to move and still serve their function adequately, and easing the weight constraints thusly makes things much easier for the DIY designer. A dining or "side" chair, however, is expected to be readily pushed out, or pushed in, or shuffled around to accomodate guests.
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