FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — La-Z-Boy take note. Architecture students Amy McCarty and Samantha Smith have transformed refrigerator boxes, shellac, and a whole lot of Elmer’s glue into comfortable seating for one — or two. Their “Extension” cardboard chair, which expands from 24” to 42” in width, may be just the thing for baby boomers who want to spread out and get comfortable.

Architecture students Samantha Smith (left) and Amy McCarty (right) demonstrate their award-winning expandable chair.

The chair has won an Innovation Merit Award in the Chair Affair competition sponsored by the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) and the International Corrugated Packaging Foundation. One of eight designs selected from 93 entries across the United States, the Extension chair design will be exhibited at the national convention of the American Institute of Architects June 8-10 in Los Angeles.

“Amy and Samantha are involved in many activities outside the classroom; it’s great to see them getting some recognition for that,” said Korydon Smith, an associate professor of architecture who teaches furniture design. “I like the transformation of the form,” he added after trying out the chair. “Cardboard, as a material commonly used in shipping, is designed to collapse, expand and fold into new forms as needed. It’s intriguing to see those properties used in other areas of industrial design.”

This isn’t the first time McCarty has carried off honors in the contest. In 2004, she and Hatti Terrell received honorable mention for a laminated cardboard chair, and a challenge from a classmate to design a chair that moves.

“I’ve been working with how to do that ­— out of cardboard, it’s a little difficult,” McCarty said. While studying in Rome last fall, she happened upon a book on chairs and found inspiration in a piece by renowned Italian furniture designer Vico Magistretti.

“Amy came up with two schemes and we refined it,” said Samantha Smith.

After securing the donation of four refrigerator boxes from Whirlpool and 10 large sheets of one-eighth-inch corrugated cardboard from Weyerhauser Corp., the students got to work. They soaked the cardboard, peeled off the top layer to expose the corrugate, and then spread the cardboard out to dry.

“I had cardboard on top of my futon, under my futon, on my counter, on the floor, on pretty much every bit of flat space available in my apartment. It’s a good thing I was in studio most of those two days,” McCarty said. They subsequently rolled the exposed corrugate into 24 tubes. Slimmer tubes crafted from one-sixteenth-inch cardboard nest inside the ridged tubes, allowing the chair to be pulled into a love seat of sorts. They used the School of Architecture’s CNC router, a software-driven mill the size of a small car, to cut out supports that they glued and carefully spaced to ensure maximum stability.

Total investment: $46 dollars and about 30 hours of labor.

For Smith, who graduated with an architectural studies degree on Saturday, May 12, the award is a nice way to wrap up her university career.

“I’ve always been interested in making my own things. It’s more personal, and you get exactly what you want,” she said. After a mission trip to the Dominican Republic in June, Smith will pursue a job in graphic design. As for McCarty, she’s looking forward to one last year in the School of Architecture and an honors thesis exploring cardboard’s potential use in design. The requisite paper may be accompanied by more custom cardboard furniture.

“I’ve got lots of ideas. A chair without glue ­— just cardboard ­— is one of the ideas that I’m trying to figure out,” she said.

For more information on the Chair Affair Competition, visit the AIAS web site at http://www.aias.org/chairaffair/.