Unstacked form of furniture preforms as a bench with a side table.
[Fall 2011]
Professor: Jodi La Coe / ARCH 497D Basic Design Studio
Project Duration: 6 Weeks - Collaboration effort (Andrew Nguyen, Allie Pladson, Vonn Weisenberger)
Main Role: Concept, construction, and documentation
The course focused on giving salvaged materials, which would otherwise be tossed in a landfill, a second life. Working closely with Penn State's Office of the Physical Plant, we salvaged materials from a university purchased building set to be demolished. In the initial phases of the project, we examined and dissected the house to take inventory of the available material and to understand the general house construction. Through the deconstruction, we identified what materials were safe to reuse.
The final product's material derived from the home's kitchen cabinetry along with assorted hardware gathered from the house. With a variety of materials, we designed two pieces of furniture with three functions: a storage cabinet, a bench, and a side table. To maintain the original spirit of the kitchen cabinets, the design began by sliding different drawers and cabinets into each other to determine the form. The outer shell of the furniture uses the largest drawer from the set and the material for the inner support/frame came from discarded wood inside the home.
