Meuble – Immeuble: Furniture – Architecture

Introduction:The studio\’s task is to design and build an item of transformable furniture to suit an itinerant user and to fit into a variety of habitats. Initially, the studio will investigate the relation between different habitats and their furnishing items. Scalar relations, issues of permanence and changeability of furnishing items, ease of use, levels of maintenance, hardware, and craftsmanship will be studied.Precedents review will include military furniture such as field commanders\’ chairs and naval officers\’ carry-on furniture, luxury pieces by David Roentgen, general and special pieces by Eileen Gray, Bernard Bijvoet, Pierre Chareau, and Jean Prouvi, including developments in the pneumatic field. There will also be a review of currently available comparable furniture items.Preparatory exercises will include the three-dimensional modeling of complex forms and their transformation, as well as researching the availability of materials and technologies at the GSD facilities.The coordination of design documentation and construction is essential in this studio. Pedagogic Objective:The design and manufacture of an item of transformable furniture is a complex task and requires thorough preparation. Besides the review of precedents, the analysis of similar objects currently available and the spatial implication of the item of furniture, the recursive process of designing and prototyping is a central pedagogic experience. Sketches, scale models, and full-scale models are all part of the series of potentially extended design research, and can be understood to stand analogously for the process of the design of any object altogether.Given the availability of computer-aided design and production, convenience and precision in the conception, specification and production of even small numbers of three-dimensional objects can be realistic and economic. Designed objects can therefore be tested at full-scale.The studio\’s intention is to develop the following skills:1.) Three-dimensional conception of static and dynamic relations;2.) Command of complex three-dimensional forms and processes;3.) Integral consideration of design and production; and4.) Command of computer aided manufacture.Studio Schedule:29 January, 12 – 15 February, 26 February – 1 March, 12 – 15 March, 2 – 5 April, 16 – 19 April, 30 April – 3 May,Final Review 7 May.