Sitting pretty : the architect & the chair

Abstract

RESEARCH QUESTION: How does the process of making furniture and applying it to architecture improve an architect's design process, skills, values and knowledge?

Throughout history great architects have proven success in the field of furniture and chair design. This research project asks why architects have pursued furniture making and design, along with asking the question: How does the process of making furniture and applying it to architecture improve an architect’s design process, skills, values and knowledge?

The aim of this research project is to explore the relationship between furniture-making and building design. The objectives of the architecture are to address Auckland’s urban cavities, encourage occupation and use of the programme and the spaces through creating architecture as an event, and addressing the lack of opportunities to creatively ‘make’ in Auckland City.

Furniture making as part of an architectural design process is explored in the design of a transportable furniture fixing factory / community centre / exhibition space, referred to as a ‘Meuble Making Studio’. The studio is proposed to move between urban cavities in the Auckland CBD as a modular ‘semi-meuble’ structure.

The research project breaks down architecture and furniture into three categories — meuble (furniture), immeuble (architecture) and semi-meuble (built in furniture), to drive form and spatial layout by testing concepts on ‘to-scale’ furniture objects. The architecture allows surrounding residents of the cavities to gain an appreciation for making and design, and to ameliorate or personalise furniture objects that would be otherwise discarded, and provide alternatives for the activation of the urban cavities. Once the workshop moves on, a stronger community with a newfound respect for design and craft will be able to watch over future developments in the urban cavities

The project shows that in briefs which involve flexible and unconventional social programmes, placed on changing and temporary sites, the nature of the architect’s problem is closer to furniture making than to designing buildings.

Sites in the Auckland CBD: Galatos Street, Dacre Street, Halsey Street.