Abstract
Bamboo is an environmentally friendly sustainable resource and is commonly used in furniture production in China. Limited research has been conducted in the field of ergonomics of bamboo furniture, which can greatly affect the seating experience. This study provides a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the main effects of seat surface curve, bending deflection of bamboo strips of seat, functions, and usability in a bamboo lounge chair provided in Zhejiang Province. The shape of the seat surface curve of the bamboo lounge chair included the seat-back angle of 134°, and the slope of the bamboo lounge chair seat was 16°. The deflection of bamboo strips of seat under vertical loading force of 336 N was 30.7 mm. In addition, the angles, deflection characteristic, and functions of the bamboo lounge chair were all human-centered design and suitable for human comfort, which can reduce maximum pressure and maintain normal lumbar spine curve in adult.
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Ergonomics of a Chinese Folk Bamboo Lounge Chair
Yifei Cheng,a Onder Tor,b Lingling Hu,a Wei Zheng,c and Youming Yu a,*
Bamboo is an environmentally friendly sustainable resource and is commonly used in furniture production in China. Limited research has been conducted in the field of ergonomics of bamboo furniture, which can greatly affect the seating experience. This study provides a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the main effects of seat surface curve, bending deflection of bamboo strips of seat, functions, and usability in a bamboo lounge chair provided in Zhejiang Province. The shape of the seat surface curve of the bamboo lounge chair included the seat-back angle of 134°, and the slope of the bamboo lounge chair seat was 16°. The deflection of bamboo strips of seat under vertical loading force of 336 N was 30.7 mm. In addition, the angles, deflection characteristic, and functions of the bamboo lounge chair were all human-centered design and suitable for human comfort, which can reduce maximum pressure and maintain normal lumbar spine curve in adult.
Keywords: Bamboo lounge chair; Furniture; China; Ergonomics; Human-centered design
Contact information: a: School of Engineering, Zhejiang Agriculture and Forest University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province 311300 P. R. China; b: Department of Forest Industry Engineering, Faculty of Forestry, Kastamonu University, Turkey c: Department of Art & Design, Jiyang College of Zhejiang A&F University, Zhuji, Zhejiang Province 311800 P. R. China;
* Corresponding author: yuyouming@zafu.edu.cn
INTRODUCTION
As the global area of forest resources decreases, there is a contradiction between the sustainable management of forest resources and the increase in demand for wood. One solution is bamboo, which is widely used for furniture design. Bamboo is a renewable and sustainable material for furniture design, and it has many advantages, such as rapid growth, high tensile strength, low weight, fire resistance, flexibility, cost effectiveness, and ease of use (Scurlock et al. 2000; Zhang 2014; Chen et al. 2019).
Bamboo can be processed into a large curvature arc, which makes the furniture shape more varied to adapt to various conditions under hot pressing (Wang 2015). In addition to its unique structural properties, bamboo is also skin-friendly and comfortable with natural appearance. It has the effect of feeling warm in winter and cool in summer. Therefore, fast-growing bamboo is a natural alternative to meet the high demand from the household market (Qiu et al. 2019).
Approximately 70% of the bamboo forest in Asia is in China and India. There are more than 40 genera and 500 species, with 6.01 million hm2 of bamboo forest, which accounts for about 1/3 of the total bamboo forest area in the world (Qiu et al. 2019). Bamboo furniture has a long history in China (Fang and Chen 2002; Fang and Wang 2015). It is rooted in the simplicity of daily life and maintained harmony with the environment (Fig. 1), but the design and manufacture of bamboo furniture is based on the experience of craftsmen, which is not related to the principle of ergonomics.
Most studies of bamboo furniture focus on technology innovation (Xia et al. 2017; Sofiana et al. 2017; Wang et al. 2017, 2018a), marketability (Majumdar et al. 2017), or aesthetics and culture (Sun and Li 2014; Fang and Wang 2015; Lei and Wang 2015). However, there has been limited research in the field of ergonomics for bamboo furniture. Cheng et al. (2017) evaluated new bamboo furniture through examining the relationship between design and value in Taiwan and reported that if the bamboo furniture’s “human factors” were not satisfactory, then the “aesthetic sensitivity”, “usability”, and “marketability” were not satisfactory to consumers either.