Monica Bhatia . Carl Frisk . Andrea Kim . Jake Shapiro
Project objective:
This past thesis was about renewing the appreciation of traditional Chinese furniture by re-introducing it with a modern twist into the contemporary homes of the growing middle class communities in urban China. This is achieved by providing furniture with the use of customization, and an emphasis on comfort, and style options. Because there is a rapidly growing population in urban areas, there is a growing demand for modern furniture. He believes that the appreciation for Chinese furniture is being diminished as citizens are being influenced by ever-present Western contemporary design.
Product:
A line of chairs as well as a system of customization.
Research methods:
Influence of other designers, historical pieces, visits to the actual location (Beijing, China) as well as their furniture shops, studies of the authentic floor plans of the Chinese homes he is trying to suit, identification of the demand, surveys, as well as research of the aesthetics and joinery of China.
Research methods that informed the design:
Researching Ming style furniture helped influence the aesthetics of his final designs.
Relationship with NFP:
Worked with AIGA XCD (Center for cross cultural design) to conduct surveys on aesthetics.
Design development:
It was clear he did not use his Not for profit to help gather the proper information. It seemed that he just went to the NFP for feedback. The final outcome could be very similar without the help of the NFP, it seemed the designs were finalized prior to the user surveys. The surveys could have been more useful if they were gathering information on what the users needed in their homes.
Relationships affect on the final outcome:
The user surveys were the only things that could have influenced the final outcome.
Materials role in this object:
Pros: Sustainable object – flat pack, eco-friendly stain, plyboo.
Making a system where the chair is built to order, this eliminates excessive waste.
Cons: Didn’t state that the production of this chair would have taken place in China. Production and material would be a lot cheaper. If produced in the US, this goes against this client’s needs for affordable furniture; Plyboo is expensive (in the US) and weak.
Comparison between his old design process to our new design process:
Feasibility:
2 comments:
Hi, I'm not exactly sure that I understand your board. Why did you include the cutting sheet for the chair from the cooper hewitt show? How is that relevant to your criticism of Michael's project?
Hi. We were actually going to refer to Abbott Miller's approach of laying out pieces on a single sheet of material. We went down and looked at Michael's original cutting sheet and saw that he left a lot of space in between. We were thinking about proposing the use of Miller's ideas with Michael's.
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