GSAPP Furniture Design Studio Fall 2008

Furniture Studio: Parameters of Design

This studio explores the connection between advanced computational design techniques and the engagement of reality in the production of a piece of architecturally embedded furniture. Processes inherent with contemporary modes of digital design to production including parametric exploration, performative design, solid modeling, computer numerically controlled fabrication and material studies will be used to generate a full-scale template for manufacturing. The skill to craft material has traditionally been the realm of expression of individuality in the design process. Through the use of more direct forms of simulation this has become easier to engage, but had removed the physicality of craft from the process. Contemporary involvement in CNC and parametric techniques has facilitated the potentials of the user to become more involved in the process while simultaneously collapsing the traditional designer and craftsperson duality. This potential is the mode of conceptual exploration in the studio.By actively engaging the physical and material through all aspects of the development of a design thesis through a multilayered and iterative digital fabrication exploration, a healthy mutual relationship can be cultivated between material and the immaterial. The class will simultaneously work in the conceptual and abstract of computer design while testing physical implications through digital and analogue craft. Therefore, students will work simultaneously on a design model based on parametric conditions simulated on the computer, a solid model intending to accurately model physical materiality and architectural experiments working up to a full-scale prototype of the project of a quality for exhibition. The goal is to rethink the relationship between design and construction and engage a dialog through the production of furniture objects that engage an Architectural space.The studio intends to explore the complete process of the design of a piece of architectural furniture from it's conception to it's realization through the production of a full-scale prototype. This prototypical example will be presented by the GSAPP for inclusion into the 2009 Milano Furniture Fair and the New York ICFF. The GSAPP Digital Fabrication Lab (www.arch.columbia.edu/fabcon) and the Non-Linear Solutions Unit (www.arch.columbia.edu/nlsu) will be a research source for the parametric study of design.

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Furniture Studio: Parameters of Design

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