The story behind the TEMP Chair is quite short and sweet. Hoyoung ordered a couple of plywood sheets from a carpentry store. The sheets came wrapped in woven straps, which Hoyoung unpacked carefully, orienting the plywood sheets in the shape of a chair before securing the straps back in place. Voila, that’s really all it took for Hoyoung to make the TEMP chair, or what I refer to as creative accidental IKEA furniture.

The chair’s unburnished design and shortcut aesthetic is exactly what makes it such an appealing piece. It really gives IKEA a run for its money, with a chair that’s literally flat-packed, easy to assemble and even disassemble. The chair’s packaging (the nylon straps) ends up being the very element holding the furniture together, giving you a unique seating device with zero wastage. The wooden planks come together to form a rather rustic looking piece of furniture, while the bright orange nylon straps give it a pop of color. A ratchet sits on the back, allowing you to tighten or loosen the straps – a feature that’s useful when you’re assembling or disassembling the chair. When you need to move, the straps help secure the wooden planks together, allowing you to flat-pack your TEMP chair and shift it around efficiently!

Designer: Hoyoung Joo