Museum adding former student's
Emergency Chair to its collection

A chair that can be assembled without nails or screws, created by a former design student at Texas A&M, will enter the Milwaukee Art Museum's permanent collection after being a part of its Green Furniture Design exhibit.

David Sellers, who earned a Bachelor of Environmental Design degree in 2002, designed the "Emergency Chair," which is on display at the Milwaukee museum through March 14, 2010.

Museum organizers created the Green Furniture Design exhibit to focus on the concept of sustainable design, centering on a responsible use of materials and methods of manufacture as well as an object's lifespan, energy usage, and recycling/disposal.

"The chair comes in a flat plywood panel 27.75" by 31" with laser-cut sections, so it's easy to transport and store," said Sellers. "The user can break apart the sections in a seating emergency and assemble the chair using the instructions on the seat top. No fasteners are necessary; only a rubber mallet is needed."

The exhibition explores how 21st-century furniture makers seek to modify users' aesthetic expectations — especially when it comes to forms that are multifunctional, recyclable, or made of alternative materials.

Work by contemporary artists such as Sellers is featured alongside historical objects, exploring roots of the green idea in furniture design.

Sellers, know professionally as “d e Sellers,” spent the past four years as an international construction consultant and field engineer and is now pursuing a masters degree in architecture with an emphasis on industrial design at Delft University of Technology in Delft, The Netherlands.

He's also planning to produce an architecture-related radio show that will focus on illustrating the benefits of making design and urbanism investments for individuals that increase health and wealth as well as stimulate economic and environmental sustainability through architecture, urbanism, science, economics, fiction and nonfiction.

During his undergraduate days at Texas A&M, Sellers created a legacy at the college by contributing to two major projects.

He was the chief fabricator and constructor of a tower at the college honoring longtime Aggie architecture professor Alan Stacell, who died in 2001.

The 43-foot tall tower, which stood in building A of the Langford Architecture Center from 2002-08, wasn't held together with nuts and bolts—it was built using the principles of tensegrity, one of Stacell's academic interests, which means its unique structural pattern produced a tensional integrity by being pulled together in both directions by tensioned cables, keeping it in equilibrium.

Sellers also fabricated "Free Flight," an abstract sculpture designed by then architecture professor Taeg Nishimoto and installed at the Easterwood Airport in College Station. The sculpture consists of an array of 100 glimmering stainless steel-mesh wing shapes, frozen in mid-flutter.

The designer’s work and thoughts on furniture design are showcased on the d e Sellers website.

Seller’s adventures as a crew member on an ill-fated Alaskan commercial fishing boat and his beginnings as a furniture designer were featured in the winter 2004 issue of the College of Architecture’s archone. newsletter.

- Posted: Jan. 21, 2010-