Furniture Design Ideas

theory • A set of statements or principles devised to explain a group of facts or phenomena. A belief or principle that guides action or assists comprehension or judgment.1 INQUIRY Theorizing sheds light on the nature of something through individual or collective inquiry. Regarding our interest in the subject of furniture design, the questions asked […]

What recurring themes or cumulative lessons are apparent from the furniture studies? Some furnishings were the first to use a specific material or a new fabrication technology. Some pieces have remarkable workmanship. Some studies reveal deeply rooted social utility or formulate cultural links to a particular place and time. Some are precedents for furniture designs […]

Date: 2006 Digital technology and CNC fabrication techniques have become a reliable source for producing complex forms with little concern for the material being used or the waste that is generated in the fabrication process. The information from a parametric process flows in one direction, downstream, from digital to physical (Figure 4.107). Often, the joints […]

Context:

Date: 2004 Since 2004, Emiliano Godoy has worked on the design of furniture made with knitted pieces of wood (Figure 4.101). This project started while Godoy was studying industrial design at Pratt Institute in New York. He was researching vegetable-based materials for design, and developing 100 percent biodegradable pieces. The Knit chair was his first […]

He transformed into mortal clay or ashes.17 The design is a solid wooden cube. The sitting surface is concave over grooves that are convex—the lower and upper parts of a sphere—thus symbolizing the convergence of life and death, heaven and earth. Since it is designed for outdoor use, rain runs off in the grooves. When […]

In this chapter, 25 furniture case studies are organized chronologically. Text descriptions, computer-rendered images, hand drawings, and photographs help present the context and background, tectonics, and aesthetics of the studies. The studies present ideas about sitting, working, storing, and partitioning space and present a spectrum of furniture types, fabrica­tion techniques, and social-use examples within the […]

Mechanical joinery can allow furniture to transform into different shapes, as shown in the American drop-leaf table (Figure 3.45). The classic American colonial chair-table was an armed chair resembling a throne with a pivotal back that could easily convert to a table (Figure 3.46). This idea inspired Zabro, designed by Alessandro Mendini in 1984, and […]

Most furnishings are freestanding, but relatively few are designed to be experienced in the round. Beds, couches, case goods, and rectangular tables are often placed against a wall or next to other furnishings. Coat racks and video shelving units are typically located in corners. However, lounge seating, dining, conference, and coffee tables are designed to […]

When built-in furniture is carefully inte­grated with its surrounding space, it can enhance the continuity of the architec­ture. Built-in casework and millwork require on-site installation and mechani­cal attachment to a floor, wall, or ceiling. In these situations, designers must con­sider ways in which relatively imperfect or irregular existing conditions will receive precisely fabricated elements. Reveals, […]