In conversation

Framing the Body

With Doshi Levien

Shaping presence,
posture and experience

Portraits by Jonas Lindström, Alisa Connan

Nipa Doshi and Jonathan Levien reflect on how chairs frame the body –
creating intimate spaces that balance form, comfort and presence.

When people think about chairs, they often focus on practical aspects, but for us, the story begins with the body itself. How a chair frames the body is a way of shaping presence, posture and experience. What do you feel when you sit in a chair? Sitting is an intimate act, and the chair is the intermediary between architecture and the human form. It is this meeting that we try to understand and honour in our designs1.

(Fig 1)

My Beautiful Backside

Upholstered in felt and wool, and embellished with silver and gold foiling, this piece possesses an opulent, overtly Indian character. Moulded buttons, placed at the centre of each cushion, act like small jewels within the composition.
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(Fig 2)

The Garden of Life

The Garden of Life by Naveen Patnaik includes the story of Princess Kadambari, who is at first too shy to approach a prince, but is later persuaded to honour her guest. She stretches out her hand and places a betel leaf in his, offering it as though offering her heart. This illustration – a princess seated among cushions in a symbolic garden – inspired the concept and layered composition of My Beautiful Backside.
ND

When we talk about framing the body, it’s more than physical support – it’s about creating a space that responds to the person sitting in it. It’s an embrace that is both physical and emotional, offering a connection that goes beyond function2. Sometimes that framing amplifies your presence; sometimes it intersects the body, revealing only fragments of the figure.

JL

That idea comes through in Paper Planes3. Its angular, origami-like folds give it a strong visual identity – sharp, deliberate lines that stand in graphic contrast to the soft volume of the human form. There’s a lightness and dynamism to the chair, poised on its scaffold-like metal frame as if caught mid-flight4. It adapts to the sitter’s body, welcoming different postures without dictating how you should be seated. This openness feels generous and inviting, while forming a dialogue with its architectural surroundings.

(Fig 3)

PAPER PLANES FULL-SCALE MODEL AND PRODUCTION VERSION

A cardboard prototype of the Paper Planes chair capturing the early exploration of form and structure. A single dart cut into the checked surface transforms a flat, two-dimensional sheet into the first suggestion of a chair. The production version made my Moroso uses Kvadrat Remix fabric, with Swarovski crystals applied alongside screen-printed checkered lines.

When we design a chair, we start with our hands – cutting and folding cardboard into full-scale models. It’s a sculptural process, shaped by instinct and guided by the body. For the Cala chair for Kettal, the silhouette emerged from passing aluminium wire through the fingers to find a generous natural curve in space. By creating this large, enveloping backrest, the chair contains the body, while its woven frame acts as a screen through which you stay connected to your surroundings. Surprising things happen through making: discoveries that don’t surface when simply drawing on a page.

JL
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(Fig 4)

Cala Chair made by Kettal

Cala began with the intention of creating a large, majestic chair with a strong spatial presence for outdoor settings. For Doshi Levien, the chair was never conceived as a simple object, but as a space that frames a person, shaping their posture and gestures.
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(Fig 5)

Cala prototype on the bench

The first prototype is lovingly handmade by a master metal craftsman in Spain.
ND

With the Impossible Wood chair, we wanted to create a piece that appears as a continuous, sinuous line circumnavigating the body5. At the time, we had discovered Martin Puryear’s timber structures, with their overlapping wooden strips creating light, rhythmic enclosures. Though not furniture, they shifted our approach entirely, encouraging us to think architecturally – in slender, directional elements that shape space.

JL

We set ourselves the strict parameter of building the entire chair from 50mm strips of rolled cardboard that were shaped around the body. Mouldable wood proved too brittle for such thin sections, ultimately leading us to polypropylene. The chair was impossible to make in wood, and impossible to make in liquid wood. Hence the name Impossible Wood.

(Fig 6)

Impossible Wood chair at the studio

The Impossible Wood chair by Doshi Levien in its Columbia Road studio: a fluid, sculptural form shaped through material innovation. Designed to be stackable and used in multiples, it builds a rhythm of sinuous lines in space.
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(Fig 7)

A chair with presence

With its wide cantilevered arms and upturned, lapel-like back, Capo frames the sitter with a quiet sense of authority. The open embrace is welcoming, while, once you are seated, the form elevates your presence within the space.
JL

We often talk about the parallels between garments, shoes and chairs. Beyond process — the manipulation of fabric or leather into complex volumes around the body — there is the less obvious connection: how these tailored forms make you feel. We designed Capo for Cappellini with the idea that a chair can amplify the person using it.

ND

The open, conical gesture of the chair’s shell surrounds you and heightens your relationship to your surroundings, making you feel quite elevated – hence the name Capo. The generous proportions of Capo’s arms also provide a natural perch for a small child when you’re reading to them, so Capo can frame not just one body, but two.

JL

In the end, every chair we design begins and ends with presence – how the body feels, how it occupies space and how form can support that experience with intention. To frame the body is to shape that moment with care, so that form, posture and feeling are held in balance.

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(Fig 8)

Cedar Lodge by Martin Puryear (1977)

Constructed from thin, overlapping timber strips bound by horizontal rings, Martin Puryear’s Cedar Lodge informed the making process that led Doshi Levien to the structural language of Impossible Wood.
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(Fig 9)

Early concept drawings

As a starting point for Impossible Wood, the studio set itself the constraint of using 50mm-wide strips of corrugated card to construct the chair. This approach established a consistent design language and echoed the rhythmic, layered construction observed in Puryear’s work.
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(Fig 10)

Nipa Doshi and Jonathan Levien in the studio

Nipa Doshi sits on the Paper Planes armchair model in Doshi Levien’s Columbia Road studio – a moment that captures the design’s transition from concept to form, when the chair first begins to reveal how its folded geometry frames the body. Portrait by Annica Eklund.

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Living Objects
Essay

Celebrating the plurality of Indian culture and material environment, designers Nipa Doshi and Jonathan Levien have selected a series of everyday Indian objects from markets, shops and the home, sourced from New Delhi to Trivandrum.