Furniture Studio: Materials, Craft, and Architecture

Description

Furniture Studio explores the origins, methods, results, and influence of the unique and highly successful furniture design and fabrication studios offered by the University of Washington Department of Architecture. The furniture program, initiated by Andris Vanags, is an immersion into the role of materials, design, and making in architectural education. Students directly engage the physical properties of materials, and the knowledge gained through this engagement enriches the design and fabrication process. The experiences of its graduates reveal that the studio fosters creative thinking that truly integrates design and making. Ochsner presents historical background to shop-based courses, including furniture studio; traces the careers of four representative graduates of the program; and suggests implications from this program for architectural education and individual achievement beyond the University of Washington. Eleven students and the projects they created in the winter 2009 studio are profiled, and the book contains a fully illustrated catalogue of exemplary student projects from 1989 to the present. Illustrations and descriptions throughout the book showcase the heirloom-quality projects created by the students, many of which won awards in competitions. Review: Great book, good pictures - I bought this book to learn more about modern furniture design. Basically it's about a graduate level class where architectural students who have no experience woodworking are challenged to design and build high quality furniture pieces with the assistance of some experienced teachers. As someone with minimal experience learning to build furniture for around the house this was really interesting and helpful for understanding the process of initial design, mock-up, wood selection, and ultimately construction. There are also a lot of good pictures. Review: Furniture Studio. - One of the few of my furniture books that I have read right through. Because I teach, I see the same challenges brought out in this book, that I face with my students. A must read for lecturers and for those who appreciate the need to "produce" and learn by "doing"