BIP Concrete Chairs

Client: BIP

  • Industrial Design
  • Identity
  • Engineering
  • Prototyping
  • Testing

Problem

Rebar was traditionally held in place for concrete pouring by "dobies" - blocks of concrete with two steel wire tails sticking out the top. On a large project, the total weight of dobies that needed to be arranged on a site and the time to tie rebar to the dobie by hand can stack up quickly.

Solution

Much lighter and easier to use, snap-in BIP chairs radically reduce the time and labor required to to lay rebar.

Slabtown In Stumptown

A very clever guy came to FUSE with an idea.   A better way to set up a grid of rebar that floats within a slab of concrete. This wasn’t a totally new idea,  but Kerry, the guy, had a host of improvements he wanted to add and he had a plan to make these really sell. These concrete chairs turn the  painful time eating chore of setting up a grid of rebar into literally a snap. The rebar just pops into place at just the right height.Our job was to make them super strong and super cool. We made them feel like the super utilitarian future  by instituting this octogonal theme throughout the structure.  The octogonal base not only provided visual branding  but also helped with keeping the  rebar layouts in the field  straight. FUSE  designed all 27  variations that accomodate different sized bar and different heights. FUSE also redesigned the BIP logo along the way.