Freezing Cold Shop Space? Here's How to Create a Heated Shop Chair

Freezing Cold Shop Space? Here’s How to Create a Heated Shop Chair Here’s a fantastic project where Laura Kampf demonstrates what we consider solid design thinking: A combination of analysis, problem-solving and outside-of-the-box thinking. Here’s the problem she faced, and how a more conventional thinker would have solved them: Problem: Laura works in an unheated shop. The shop is massive, and thus too expensive to efficiently heat. Engineer’s solution: “We’ll heat the whole space using radiant floor heating with energy supplied by solar panels. The equipment will pay for itself in just 25 years.” Architect’s solution: “We’ll knock out the south-facing wall, and replace it with energy-efficient glass. The sun’s rays will warm her and it re-contextualizes the space by removing the fourth wall, just as Laura ‘removes the fourth wall’ by speaking to the camera, creating a perfect mirroring of human activity and the structures that enable them.” Interior Designer’s solution: “We’ll build an interior ‘heating space’ room, filled with a heating system, warm colors, images of warm places, handmade blankets created by Kurdish tribespeople and an expensive but cushy couch where Laura can recharge and restore herself.” Laura / Industrial Designer’s solution: “The space is too big to heat. I have observed that I am most cold when I sit down. Therefore, it would be the least expensive, and most efficient, to warm myself when I am sitting down.” You can’t exactly pick up a heated chair at your local furniture store, so Laura then DIY’ed her solution into existence, starting at an automotive junkyard: