Cambrian Chair 2.0

Behold! The design for the Cambrian Chair 2.0. The frame for this version is made from glue-laminated wood, which consists of layers of wood that are steamed to make them pliable, then glued together into a specific shape.

There are several reasons for the change:

1. When a solid piece of wood is cut in the shape of a curve, you end up cutting against the grain, which is a bad idea... this caused the spine in the last chair to break.
2. Further, curving the wood reduces the number of joints that need to be cut by hand. The last chair had something like ten mortisen tenon joints-- this version has two, plus a few glue-only joints. Which should make the chair faster to manufacture.
   
3. This reduces the amount of sanding that needs to be done. Last time I had to sand down all the curves by hand until they were perfect. Now, I just need to create the form for each piece (three forms total), and sand the edges and flat outer surfaces... a piece of cake.
4. This reduces (almost eliminates) waste, since the curves in the frame are constructed from strips of wood made with parallel cuts. The only part of the frame that generates the slightest waste is the wishbone joint on the back (although I may be able to tessellate the shape).
   

All this will make the chair easier to manufacture, and therefore cheaper to manufacture.

I've also eliminated the complex seat flex-joint, which didn't work as planned, and replaced it with an idea that I have yet to test... (sorry, trade secret for now).

best,
Brett

Community Design Perspectives

Here are some perspectives that I created for my Winter community design studio, a project concerned with integrating farmland into medium density residential areas. These were not used in our final poster boards because we decided to use watercolor media. These were created from hand-drawn perspectives that were colored in photoshop, using a pen-tablet (which gives the artist greater dexterity in illustration) with some useful artistic suggestions from some of my classmates, including Haley Cook.

View looking West down the hill.

View looking up the hillside to an existing barn (a photo of which was combined with the illustration).

This is a view of a sediment pond that we had planned to restore into a small wetland habitat. Since we decided to use a living machine (a biological waste treatment system) to treat sewer waste from the community, the idea here was to integrate the plants of the living machine with the surrounding landscape, to create an experiential, functional landscape. Normally these plants are protruding from tanks in a greenhouse. But here I hypothesized that we could embed the tanks below-grade in the landscape.

I'm not certain that this setup would work in the northwest climate (the only examples I've had were from more arid climates), but if it did work, it would be an integration of waste treatment, public open space, and riparian habitat.

best,
Brett

Changing Demographics

I am posting a new paper I wrote in my Community Design class last term:

Changing (U.S) Demographics and Implications for Design

If you are interested in this topic, you may also be interested in the community design studio project, see this post.

Conclusions:

I have attempted to identify some of the key issues that arise out of the shifting U.S. demographics. In reality, each area will have a demographic microclimate, with different local concentrations of minorities or levels of affluence. But broadly speaking, it is standard practice to build housing developments of expensive, identical homes, far away from services and from town centers, and segregated from large rental housing blocks—which may be no closer to services. This practice should change: we should integrate family homes and non-family homes into neighborhoods; use construction practices encouraging flexible housing capable of growth and subdivision; integrate owned units and rental units into neighborhoods; make more housing accessible to lower incomes; and locate neighborhoods more closely to places of employment and basic services—if not in mixed zoned areas where they can closely intermingle. It may also be advantageous to offer cluster housing for large extended families or small communities that share a common bond; reflecting not only the greater liberalism of lifestyle attitudes, but of the influx of minority groups for whom extended family is an important cultural heritage.

Cambrian Chair 1.0

Presenting the Cambrian Chair! I consider this chair the 1.0 prototype, due to various things I intend to change in the next iteration.

Materials:
frame: Pacific Madrone
seat/back panels: Pacific Madrone with Madrone Burl verneer
flex-joints: glued layers of 1/32 inch raw Rift-sawn Red Oak verneer
Mortisen tenons: Oak.
Finish: oil-- combination of beeswax, linseed oil, citric oil, etc

This chair was praised by professional furniture designers for its comfort and innovative use of flexible wood.

I burned through about 50 square feet of 1/32 inch verneer prototyping what I call "flex-joints" that have high strength and flexibility. Typically, wood thin enough to flex easily is brittle, it will crack if too much force is applied. By using glued layers of verneer, the glue increases the strength of the material, so it can flex without breaking.


Being my first time building a piece of furniture-- and being a chair, which is among the most difficult pieces of furniture to build--- and it being a piece that by any standard is unusual--- many things went wrong during construction. A seat panel warped. The back panels had to be cut too small. A joint in the frame is starting to fail. A drill bit is broken off inside the frame (now a permanent feature of the chair), etc.

Changes to the next version will be a deeper seat, and possibly a rigid seat, or one that flexes only a little bit. The finish dramatically darkens the materials, so next time I may tone down the contrast, leave the madrone panels un-verneered.

If you want a chair, let me know. I have yet to determine the final cost, which is based on how I can streamline manufacturing of the chair.

Hope you enjoyed my little creation!
Brett

Trans-farmation

Last term in studio, I had the pleasure of working with two landscape architecture students, Liz Weigand and Shannon Eldridge, and another architecture student, Jake LaManna, in a group community design project. Our client was Thompson Farms in Damascus, Oregon. Damascus has been asked by Portland Metro to densify their city to 6-12 units per acre, but meanwhile Damascus would like to retain its rural character and farmland. Their vision is to combine commercial farming with housing in a new model for sustainable urban agriculture.

Today, our team submitted this project to the ACSA Green Community Design Competition. Click on each board to view a full-size JPG of each poster board. Wish us luck!