Palm-Tree Coat Stand with Collapsing Branch Mechanism
A sculptural coat stand whose branches fold down under load — a decorative object where the mechanism, not the shape, was the engineering problem.
A coat stand shaped like a palm tree, where the fronds hold garments and fold down when they are meant to.
The problem
The client’s brief was clear about behaviour and vague about how:
- Two states, one shape. Fixed, the branches hold a coat. Pressed, they collapse together and the coat comes off.
- The mechanism has to hide inside a decorative form. A palm trunk is not a convenient housing — it is narrow and tapered exactly where a linkage wants room.
- Load direction changes during the motion. A hanging coat pulls down; the release pushes down too, so the mechanism must distinguish between the two.
- Scale had to be believable. The client pushed back hard on early proposals where the internal parts looked scaled from a reference without regard to the actual size of the product.
Much of the project was communication: the client repeatedly asked for section views and side views to understand the movement, because a mechanism cannot be approved from a hero render.
The approach
- Section and side views as the working language. Once the motion was drawn in section, the conversation moved forward — those views became the primary deliverable during development.
- Linkage sized to the trunk, not adapted from a reference at a different scale, after the client’s scale objection.
- Branch geometry doing double duty, so the decorative frond shape is also the lever arm that carries the garment.
- Iterated on the movement, with each version answering a specific question about how the branches fold.
The result
A resolved mechanism and product design carried through the client’s review, with the folding motion documented in section and side views.
Where this applies
Decorative and furniture products that also have to move. The mechanism has to fit inside a shape chosen for looks — and be explained in drawings a non-engineer can read.
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