Outline of Research

Question: Is it still art and does it still connect to the building within a rootless creation?

Framed through introduction to theory

Content analyzed by types of furniture and their particular significance

• Types
  • major types and function
  • design values of types
  • implications of values
• Theory
  • Benjamin Reading
    • Reproduction increases access but can also decrease quality
    • Art before modern age had mystique/earnestness that makes it irreproducible; unique phenomenon of distance
    • Argues that modern art has no aurora; photography/film, made by mechanical process, direct reproductions. Still art but aurora is gone
    • Art has translated from use value to exchange value. Benefits: democratized, access, exposure. Negatives: cheapens it
    • No patrons; need to make money has infected everything
  • Loos
    • Three dimensionality, materiality. Expression of modernity on the exterior, interior concerned with human: represents the duality of modernity
    • Architects have strayed too far from cultural ties and have become rootless city dwellers. (Furniture as a mass manufactured urban entity?)
  • Corbusier
    • Aesthetic based on pure form – regulating lines/proportions add a rational sense of coherence to the buildings

 

 

 

• Chair: Form or Function? (https://scholarworks.rit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1853&context=theses)
  • How is design centered around form or function depending on the designer, firm, or company?
    • Nicos Zographos – form 1st, sitting 2nd
      • Studies in comfort meaningless because everybody is different
    • Niels Diffrient – Sitting 1st
      • Comfort integral part of design
  • 3D form as means of expression
    • Functional chair could be made by computer, so why is it still designed by a human?
      • Ergonomics research as foundation to build the visual elements
  • Mass design
    • Cannot be overly complex for manufacturing purposes
      • DeFuccio (Triangle Chair), Pettit (Petit Ply Chair), Snodgrass (Continuum chair)
    • Joinery and Aesthetics altered with mass manufacturing
  • 1950’s
    • Companies all making similar chairs
    • Office furniture
      • Chair type was a sign of status and position within the company (secretary vs. boss)
      • Designed of where and how chair will be used
• Desk: Where and How?
  • Functional and manufacturing issues prime design parameter
    • Original design altered for functionality
    • Materiality chosen for manufacturing
    • Aesthetic removals sometimes coincide with ease of manufacturing
  • Conference Table
    • Design adaptable to different sizes and proportions (structurally and aesthetically)
    • Design for multiple materials/what is commercially available
• Shelving & Storage
  • Parameters
    • Strength for variety of storage (magazine, book, clothing)
    • Is it being designed for the office or the home? Or is it a flexible design for both?
    • Design with regards to materials that are in fashion
  • Fabrication
    • Simple assembly with minimal joints
    • Modular system that is collapsible
    • In order to be successful, must be able to assemble and install in any city in the country (should not hang from ceiling or mount to wall, not practical for mass ease of use)
      • Design in a way that the design cannot be installed incorrectly

What now? What is Art?