Furniture Design Portfolio

Bachelor of Interior Architecture

FURNITURE DESIGN Portfolio & Reflection

Semester: August - November 2021

Name: Cynthia Foong Wei Li Student ID: 0343302

Assignment 1: Joinery sketches Week Week Week Week Week Week Week Week

1: My room is my sanctuary 2: Grooming & Beauty 3: Midnight hunger pangs 4: Exercise time.

5: It’s raining cats and dogs 6: Sunny day at the beach.

7: I need a vacay!

8: Personal choice

week 1 sketches

my room is my sanctuary

week 2 sketches

grooming and beauty

week 3 sketches

midnight hunger pangs

week 4 sketches

exercise time

week 5 sketches

its raining cats and dogs

week 6 sketches

sunny day at the beach

week 7 sketches

i need a vacay!

week 8 sketches

individual choice

Assignment 2: Equilibrium: Finding the balance between beauty & functionality This assignment involves understanding how furniture is mass produced in factories; what machines can do and how the furniture is then assembled.

We had to design an office furniture that can be mass produced & flat packed for shipping.

Assignment 3: Invisible cities Inspired by the Invisible Cities written by Italo Calvino, we had to select a city as our main focus. From there, we had to build a world complete with a backstory and characters, as well as a resting place suitable to the lifestyle of the city.

I had chosen The Cities and the Dead 2, also known as Adelma.

Adelma

Cities and the Dead 2

CYNTHIA FOONG WEI LI

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0343302

The sights of Adelma The City of Adelma is a city where people arrive dying, and where the dead live. Adelma is in the state of a limbo, where time is constantly mismatched; the 'dead' arrive f rom different generations at different ages and different times.

The residents are riddled with familiar faces of people they once knew, masked onto the deformed faces of each Delm and appear to change every now and then, depending on the viewer. It’s no wonder that stares are common in this city

With every familiar face, an old memory is triggered. With the risk of fear and trauma resurfacing, the city is quite an uncomfortable place to be in.

DISCOMFORT

Adelma City Center

The city is simple but poor, rudimentary in their technology and equipment. Most of it is in ruins, with squatter homes on every corner among tall abandonned buildings.

Residents of Adelma: The Delms

The residents of Adelma, called the Delms, resembled humans but only slightly. Their faces & limbs are deformed, backs hunched and voices croaked.

Hunched back sitting & lying down positions

On average, the Delms are not very tall.

A peek into the city unorganised electrical towers & cables

connection bridges

abandonned buildings

ȺƵǿǞ ˜ȌȌƮƵƮ streets

stagnant water ponds squatter homes

In the city’s dire conditions, most of the Delms are squatters, making the best out of the wreckage.

unorganised electrical towers & cables

ȺƵǿǞ ˜ȌȌƮƵƮ streets

Streetside conditions

connection bridges

DIY shed squatter home

City bird’s eye view

stagnant water ponds

Getting around the city takes effort, through obstacle-like bridges and pathways.

These paths take you f rom one building to another, almost like a maze in ɈǘƵ ȺDzɯ‫ خ‬ÀƊDzƵ ȌȁƵ ɩȲȌȁǐ ȯƊɈǘ ƊȁƮ ɯȌɐ ǿǞǐǘɈ ˛ȁƮ ɯȌɐȲȺƵǶǏ ǶȌȺɈ‫خ‬

The City of Adelma

Furniture development Concept: a hidden hideout beneath a bridge that passes through a building.

The “stilt panels” creates different angles and space shapes. The angles allow for rest, but creates discomfort after a period of time.

Thick suspended bands used in a similar method as swings. Multiple bands can be used for different sitting positions. It is a risky option as there is no safety net below.

horizontal barriers

bridge in bridge in

suspended bands

Suspended pod for more privacy

Individual pods for sleeping

ɈǞǐǘɈ ˛Ɉ ɈȌ ƊǶǞǐȁ ɩǞɈǘ “uncomfortable” theme

slits and gaps for extra ventilation & added “resting challenge”

Furniture design

Top platform Bottom platform Access ladder

Suspended bands

Suspended pods

Top & Bottom Platform View

View of suspended bands seating

Through the tunnel bridge

View with tunnel bridge passing through

Reflection Through this module, I have learned to observe the things around me, especially in assignment 1 & 2 which involved everyday items. A lot goes into the furniture that is seen around us, which goes beyond the ergonomics and aesthetics. Important considerations include material and manufacturing costs and method of assembly & transportation. When designing products to be sold online, it also needs to be easily shipped and assembled by lay men.

In assignment 3, I had the opportunity to explore something more fictional. Although it is not my forte, i did enjoy the process of exploring worlds and designs that otherwise would not be feasable in reality. This is also one of my first few times making physical models (since we have been in online learning due to the pandemic) and it may not be the best work out there but im pretty happy with how it turned out. Since we had to use corrugated cardboard, i tried to match the theme of my city by distressing the carboard. All in all, there is definitely room for improvement but nevertheless, I think I did a decent job.