SUPERFURNITURE (five years later)
Just a couple notes: The superfurniture. It is furniture and it is architecture. You can stand inside it, which makes it bigger than most furniture, but it’s inside another building. It’s a built (assembled?) protest against the “collaborative” open plan. If we as students and designers want/need collaboration, we’ll seek it out, but most of what we get out of this open plan, at least in the architecture school, is distraction and socialization during what would be the most productive hours of the day. (I’m not super well equipped to handle that, so I built a way to do it.) It’s just an offering. “Look, I made this, I’m using it, but it’s for everybody.” You can walk in, sit down, and critique it as it really is, not just how you think it might be based off of some drawings on the wall. I wanted to give people something that was full scale, not a model, but the proposed intervention itself. The comic. It’s a story, it’s documentation, and it’s a platform for some discourse on ideas about design. It’s simple, but has layers that can be further read into, or used as a jumping off point. Silliness is accessible. This book is a shot at making a book about design and architecture that isn’t just another dry manuscript with Illustrator diagrams that nobody really gets anything from. Hopefully it is something irreverent and not so precious, and maybe, by being so, it’s something people actually want.
Thanks for reading, now get on with it!
I’ve got a question...
Come check this out.
... and now I’m changing my major.
Geometrically, the most obvious influence on massing is the floor grid.
The grid was used to determine the depth of the superfurniture.
48”
48” is about the depth of the desk + a chair with someone in it.
The last move in plan is a nod to the 1st years. To facilitate the easy entrance for both superfurniture occupant and 1st years, the lobby side corner nearest them is pushed back, leaving more open space and a welcoming passage to their desk area.
Another important consideration is the width of the adjacent desk. To make the superfurniture wider would block impede traffic on either side, while narrower would make occupying the structure too complicated.
There are no climate concerns when building indoors, but nonpragmatic things can generate form.
Connotations, memory, associations.
is a default, it springs into the mind when we think of a house. For many people, even the word-concept of “home” conjures up images of something fitting this shape. Superfurniture as home away from home away from home. The shape reminds us of something vernacular, something designed by people who aren’t designers. Which is perfect. An architecture studio vernacular?
But how are you gonna pay for it?
Yeah, that should work...
uh...
You could apply for a grant.
Yeah. So go write up a proposal and we’ll see what we can do.
Do
Do Do
some
gonna get
build
money,
my project
Oh yeah, I’ve got it on my desk.
Okayyyy...
That thing is making me nervous.
So what’s up with that... thing?
Well, you see...
our hopeful protagonist launches into a lengthy and poorly worded explination of the fact that he us using time lapse photography to study the movements of his body and those of the objects on his desk to better inform the design of his superfurniture.
BZZ BZZ Yep, much better.
The Student Initiated Research Grant funding for this fiscal year has been used up already. We hope to get additional funding for this program in July. I will hold onto your application pending additional funding. Warm regards,
...I’m gonna build this thing...
Aw, screw it...
...grant money or no grant money!
MEANWHILE, IN AN UNDISCLOSED LOCATION
Hmmmm, yes.
Yes, I think this is an investment worth making.
...and so I would like to cover 50% of your supply costs for the remainder of the year.
BACK IN BLACKSBURG
Hey dude...
K
N
O
C
K
Hey!
Hey dude!
And thus our protagonist realizes that perhaps building such a structure in studio will be less than productive. Hopefully future developments will help rectify the situation...
Well, the hubbub has died down, but what’s the point of this thing if its got no walls?
CLICK
Why are you cutting things in the lobby?
Well, there’s not exactly a table this big around here...
These side panels (especially the ones on the roof) also have noticeable effects on lighting within the superfurniture. As the studio is lit with awful flourescent light fixtures, spending as many hours there as are necessary can often be hard on the eyes, but with the semi-translucent panels now filtering the light from above, a pleasant, soft condition is created in the work pod. side walls to the superfurniture causes a ‘deletion’ of the peripheral vision, a quietness on the edges of the occupants view. This limits the amount of movement that the occupant can notice and be distracted by, aiding in their efforts to focus on their work instead of constantly turning their head to look at who is coming into the studio.
The north facing side is left open, facing the floor to ceiling windows of the studio, which allows the occupant to keep touch with the outside weather and light.
something about the presence of walls on either side, but no door creates a sense of exposure that wasn’t their when the superfurniture was completely open. Perhaps the same quietness in the peripheral vision but open back and front creates the sense of shelter, but an incomplete one?
What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next?
What if this superfurniture wasn’t a one-off? What if everyone in studio had one? Studio in many ways already represents a microcosm of the urban environment, with its density and spaces of “infrastructure” and work. But what if the whole thing was filled with superfurniture, each one customized and personalized to its occupant. The open spaces become plazas, the aisles, streets. Instead of picking neighborhoods.
How would this change the culture in studio? W o u l d students lose touch w i t h eachother? Collaborate and discuss t h e i r projects less? Or would their s t u d i o h o u r s become more productve?
studios,
students
pick
I want to know what you think! I WANT YOUR FEEDBACK! If we can’t talk in person, a note in the mail is the next best thing. And so, I have made this handy little questionnaire for anyone interested. Once you’ve filled it out, just cut along dotted lines, slap a stamp on that sucker and throw it in a mailbox.Any one will do, it doesn’t even need to be yours!
1. One word to describe the superfurniture?
2. Has it affected the way you act/think about studio? If so, how?
3. What is your favorite thing about it?
4. Least favorite?
5. Would you have one in studio if you could? (Or somehwere else? Where?)
6. For your own, what is the one feature you would make sure to include?
7. But really, do you like it?
Isaac Currey 4214 Worcester Drive Fairfax, VA 22032
postage
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