This blog provides a forum for students, instructors and others to share information and ideas about the Spring Thesis Program at Parsons the New School for Design in New York City.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
convertible furniture: in response to Violaine's post
Hi Violaine, I looked at all of your sketches, and I am very excited about your ideas and your plans for your thesis project. I was very interested in a similar project to the one you are proposing a while back, and I spent a lot of time building furniture that was supposed to be convertible, similar to what you are thinking about. For example, I made a table which was used in the kitchen as a work counter, and then when you eat dinner, the counter folds open to create a dining room table. Here's a sketch:
The nice thing was that the height for a dining table is lower than for a kitchen counter (where you are usually standing up while cooking), so the geometry of this design worked well. I have seen some interesting tables that change in height from coffee table to dining table height.
Here is one that is not very nice, but it shows an intersting method of adjusting the height. there are mechanisms, like a hydraulic scissors lift, that will do this, too, but I think it is more elegant and satisfying to do this just using the geometry of the table, rather than incorporating complicated machinery that requires a power source.
I also had a look at the examples of furniture that you posted. I liked the table by Jean Michel Frank, who I never heard of until now. I did a quick check on him; did you know that he committed suicide in New York City? steven
functional, transformable furniture is quite a challange since it often has one function that overshadows the other. Also simplicity and ease of use are not easy to accomplish.
If you haven't yet, you might want to check out the German designer Christoph Böninger and his work for ClassiCon.
1 comment:
Hi Violaine,
functional, transformable furniture is quite a challange since it often has one function that overshadows the other. Also simplicity and ease of use are not easy to accomplish.
If you haven't yet, you might want to check out the German designer Christoph Böninger and his work for ClassiCon.
Link here.
Good luck.
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