The furniture-making elective course is structured to develop skills in the study of materials, joining techniques, and the exploitation of their properties in design and fabrication. It focuses on the translation of an idea from concept sketches to detail drawings and the realization of a finished, working product. We discuss the concept of design unity in architecture – how to foster a general understanding of various aspects of the design and building process and talk about the relationships between designer & craftsmen through the tasks of design and making a product by hand. 

The students are assigned 2 major projects. Within each project, students are asked to conceptualize, design, detail, and fabricate keeping a record of each step of the process from inception to completion.

Project 1: Light Fixture Design & Fabrication:

Students were required to analyse a specific brief to design and fabricate a working prototype of a light fixture solution.  

The light design assignment focused on why an understanding of lighting is important in architecture and asked that the students consider energy-efficient lighting solutions as well as off-grid and rechargeable solutions in the design of their luminaire. 

PROJECT 2: Chair Design and Fabrication

The students were given a choice of 5 different chairs to build. The chairs were examples of furniture pieces designed by prominent architects.  Students were required to re-interpret the original design in terms of material usage and construction techniques using readily available materials and the equipment available in the workshop or resources that are freely available to them. Unfortunately, due to the various stages of lockdown, students were required to produce accurate scale models of their chosen chair and were not able to produce a full-scale working prototype as in previous years.  Despite the challenges of lockdown, students managed to build exceptional models of their reinterpreted chair designs and the quality of research into materials and fabrication techniques this year stood out as being of exceptional quality.