What If Chairs Had Souls? This Designer Thinks They Do

What does a soul look like? Movies and cartoons have us believe that the soul of a human or animal is merely the exact same organism, but in this translucent, glowing form, arising from the body after it has passed. Avant-garde furniture designer Muddycap’s Soul Chair brings that visual metaphor to furniture, designing what a chair’s soul would look like if the chair ‘died’.

The Soul Chair actually has 2 chairs in its unique form, but you can only sit on one of them. There’s the main chair itself, collapsed backwards, while a transparent chair hovers from within, inviting you to sit on it when you’re not pondering the ephemeral nature of life.

Designer: Muddycap

If you haven’t followed Muddycap’s work, it’s truly a masterclass in visual creativity. The unnamed designer creates chairs out of pretty much any piece of visual inspiration – but while most of his chairs are just form exercises, this one has incredible artistic and philosophical value. It’s postmodernism disguised as furniture and I’m absolutely here for it!

The two chairs come together wonderfully. One is opaque and deep blue, symbolizing the chair’s body, while the other is transparent and light blue-tinted, implying the chair’s soul. To show that the body is, in fact, dead, the opaque chair looks like it’s buckling under its own weight, collapsing towards the floor with bent rear legs. Meanwhile, the soul chair rises from it, balanced perfectly in a manner that still makes it easy to sit on.

The chair’s held in place using interlocking parts and nails that travel through the components. The transparent chair even has supportive ribs on the base so that it doesn’t crack when you sit on it. Although the entire design is likely just a rendering, it’s detailed fairly well, resulting in something that you could build tomorrow if you wanted. And then you could rest (your backside) in peace!

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