A side view of a chair designed by Hannah McCarley during the Wood Product Design studio.

A detail shot of a chair designed by Rylie Davis during the Wood Product Design studio.

Dallas Myers designed this chair during the Wood Product Design studio.

A side view of a chair designed by Peter Slowik during the Wood Product Design studio.

Caroline Elliott designed this chair during the Wood Product Design studio.

A side view of a chair designed by Tommy Wise Ehlers during the Wood Product Design studio.

Hannah McCarley designed this chair during the Wood Product Design studio.

A detail shot of a chair designed by Caroline Elliott during the Wood Product Design studio.

Tommy Wise Ehlers designed this chair during the Wood Product Design studio.

A detail shot of a chair designed by Dallas Myers during the Wood Product Design studio.

Wood Product Design

Spring 2019

Discipline: Architecture / Interior Design / Landscape Architecture
Year Level: Advanced Interdisciplinary

Professor(s):

Cory Olsen, Visiting Assistant Professor of Interior Design

Description:

The studio was designed around three primary goals: gaining a depth of material knowledge, approaching ethics in craft and making, and designing for the human body. Through readings, precedent studies and built exercises, students challenged their understanding of ergonomics and comfort. They fabricated their own adjustable chair fitting jigs to do full scale testing of different geometries across a range of user percentiles.

There was an additional focus on an ethic of making in wood and better understanding the material. Each student milled rough lumber from a variety of hardwood and softwood species and used those surfaced materials in smaller scale exercises. They sharpened their own hand tools and worked with chisels, spokeshaves and planes.