HUMOSOFA

Designing a sofa made entirely of “HUMOFIT®︎,” a new material developed by Mitsui Chemicals that wraps the human skin. MEDUM has designed a sofa using “HUMOFIT®︎,” a new material developed by Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. that senses body temperature and gently cares for people. The sofa is made of HUMOFIT®︎ alone, and in order to maximize the experience of the material's unique characteristics that senses body temperature upon contact and gently wraps the human body. The product expresses HUMOFIT®︎'s brand philosophy, which aims to create a society without mismatches between people and products, where people do not conform to the shape of things, but products gently conform to the shape of people.
Client
Mitsui Chemicals, Inc.
Category
  • Product Design
Year
2020
Photo
ROBINHOOD
Movie
ROBINHOOD

HUMOFIT® exhibits temperature dependency, so when you sit down, your body heat is transferred to the material, causing the sofa to gradually mold to the shape of your body. Additionally, due to its shape memory properties, it naturally returns to its original form when you stand up.

Research

To realize the concept of creating a sofa entirely from HUMOFIT®, we meticulously examined how to handle each step typically required in sofa manufacturing, such as sewing, stuffing, and printing.

By applying high pressure to exceed the elastic limit, we utilized the material’s plasticity, which allows it to retain deformation, to express the brand’s logo.

By layering and press-bonding the sheets together, we created a single large sheet to serve as the outer cover.

By layering and press-bonding the sheets together, 
we created a single large sheet to serve as the outer cover.

We discovered that when the air was removed from the inner bag, the materials adhered to each other and could not be separated. We resolved this issue by introducing a release agent inside.

The sofa consists of an inner bag filled with air and a cubic seat that covers the outside. The edges of the cover are not sewn, but rather 2 layers of HUMOFIT®︎ are pressed. Finally, to create a 100% HUMOFIT®︎ sofa, the tag is not printed but stamped with the HUMOFIT®︎ logo.