Ryan Bruxvoort Senior Thesis Project 2017
The
Kotona
Collection
Project Statement
How can design be utilized to elevate materials with no perceived value to a timeless high-quality collection of furniture for the home?
Intended Outcome
Locate materials that tell a story. Design a signiture piece to establish aesthetic. Design a small family of products based on signiture piece.
Target Market
40+ years of age Moving up in home More disposeable income Greater appreciation of quality More willing to invest long-term
Aronson Woodworks
Clay Aronson, a 2oo1 graduate of Iowa State University’s Architecture program, started Aronson Woodworks in 2011. Aronson specializes in old fashioned hand tools and joinery techniques to produce unique furniture that will withstand the test of time.
Brand Language and Joinery
Collections
Waterfall Line
Bohlender Line
Commercial Work
Chadwick & Bergstrom
Allen Chadwick and Brian Bergstrom founded Chadwick & Bergstrom in 1998. Their meticulous craftsmanship and modern design language is intended to showcase the natural beauty of their hardwood furniture.
Aesthetics
Brand Language
Chadwick & Bergstrom’s brand language is conveyed through curvininear forms, high contrast materials, and an avoidance of mechanical fastners.
Commissioned Work
Interview Insights
• Consistent design language is essential to creating an identifiable brand. • Set yourself apart through using unique materials. • Utilize local materials as much as possible. • The best experience comes from practice.
• Eliminate mechanical fasteners when possible. • Familiarize yourself with many different construction techniques. • Aim for timeless designs that remain relevant for longer periods of time. • Don’t rush the building process.
Mass Manufacturing Much of the mass manufactured furniture is built with materials inferior to hardwoods. These pieces of furniture lack the integrity to withstand the test of time due to the materials and joinery used in their construction. Many options require in-home assembly and come in boxes which can hide imperfections from the consumer until they begin to assemble the furniture.
Mass Manufactured Joinery
Locking cams become loose over time. Areas joined by screws rarely accompanied by glue. Many affordable, mass manufactured furniture options utilize joinery methods that are not built to support a long life cycle.
Assembly
Let’s be honest... we’ve all been there.
Quality Control “packaged carelessly”
“not worth the price”
“the marble top came apart when it was supposed to be glued down...”
Head to Head
The difference is the materials and the craftsmanship.
Sustainability
The SFC was established in 2006 to promote environmentally sound practices in the furniture industry in the United States.
In 2006, furniture accounted for more than 18 million pounds of waste - the most of any durable good.
SFC Life Cycle Findings Handcrafted furniture
Mass manufactured furniture frequently uses
less energy to produce requires
toxic VOCs.
$ Mass manufactured furniture often
shipped long distances.
Handcrafted furniture
Handcrafted furniture more
20-30% price premium.
become an heirloom.
commands a
likely to
Handcrafted
Handcrafted furniture not only offers greater quality than its mass manufactured counterpart, it also offers a much richer appearance that can only be achieved by slowing down and focusing on the details. The real difference, however, becomes clear when you interact with the furniture. The quality of materials, structure of the joinery, and attention to details become very apparent after a closer inspection.
Handcrafted Joinery
Joinery plays a significant role in furniture’s ability to withstand the test of time and convey a sense of value. The butterfly joint adds to the aesthetic while providing high quality construction. The biscuit joint is an example of hidden joinery.
Sourcing Materials As building renovation becomes more common in addition to old buildings being cleared away to make way for the new, many high quality materials once used for those structures are labeled as “waste� and sent to the landfills. Meanwhile, mass manufactured furniture is being produced using low quality materials and joinery techniques, which makes them destined to have a short life cycle.
Objective
The goal is to intervene between the building demolition and the landfill in order to identify and obtain the usable materials and transform them into high quality pieces of furniture for the home.
Roadblocks
People don’t want you on their construction site Buildings being remodeled often incorporate original materials as design elements Making your furniture unique is HARD!!! “There are millions of furniture products out there at every price point, in every style imaginable, and there isn’t a whole lot that the industry hasn’t seen at this point.” www.makersrow.com
Mid-Century Modern Influence
Preliminary Scale Models
Inspiration
The source of inspiration for the design is a combination of geometric minimalism of the Mid-Century Modern style combined with curvilinear forms found in nature.
Design Principles
Geometric Minimalism Biomorphic Comfortable Affordable?
Color Palette
Desk Ideation
Coffee Table Ideation
Chair Ideation
Bent Lamination Tests (Scale Models)
1/2 Scale Models
CAD Models (SolidWorks)
CAD Schematics (SolidWorks)
Source of Materials
Materials for this project were sourced from a demolished single-family home in Ames, IA. This primarily consisted of 2x6 framing boards and wooden tongue and groove siding.
Processing Materials
The materials for this project required hours of processing, which included nail removal, planing, sanding, and cutting to reveal the usable portions of the materials recovered from the demolished home.
Construction
Constructing the different pieces relied on different methods of joinery. The table tops utilized a combination of biscuit joints as well as the original tongue and groove joint. Each piece features bent lamination accents and the chair is constructed mainly using the Kreg pocket hole system.
Finishing
Finishing
Many of the glue ups required the full 24 hours to dry to ensure that the bond would be strong enough to provide the proper structure as well as hold the correct form with the laminations. After glue ups were done, additional sanding and finish work was required to prepare the furniture for staining.
The word Kotona is Finnish for “at home.� This name was selected to describe the materials once used to create a house, which now find themselves at home transformed into valued pieces of furniture.
Thank You Ryan Bruxvoort
(515) 577-2637 ryanb0185@hotmail.com linkedin.com/in/ryan-bruxvoort-69722b126/