These latest set of renderings is inspired from from the F-117. While the old design was nice but it just wasn’t meeting some of the requirements I had originally proposed.
Tagged: Desk 25
A Purposeful Process
it's about what happens in the middle…
Posts from the “Sketches” Category
The development of this desk has lead me down quite a few paths. Now the form has settled a little more so now I have to concentrate on materials and process. This first set of renderings has the combination of oak legs with a sheet metal or laminated composite body, and a light solid wood top. The second tier would rely on the flatness on the top of the curved body, which also has a little belly on the bottom… hence my desire for a laminated composite body.
The next set of renderings uses the combination of a simpler rolled sheet metal body on a more industrial-looking set of legs that could simply be welded or perhaps a variation of it could be sand-casted. The top/second tier would be a transparent plastic like polycarbonate, and the top, again would be a lightly colored solid wood.
In order to check proportions, I decided to make 1/8th linear scale blue foam model of the table. One with a complex rolled bottom and one with just a straight rolled bottom. Alas I think they are too small to really get the idea I’m trying to convey.
It’s hard for me to think about this exercise in terms of intangible properties as most of what I see and experienced with this exercise are focused on structural and aesthetic. Intention and perception would only be applicable when this material and process are applied to objects.
Thesis and Furniture research collided this week as I needed to figure out a way to make curved surfaces. Years ago, I saw a guy at the Woodworker’s Club make these amazing rocking chairs by laminating strips of wood together so I thought that would be a good place to start with me before I attempted to make compound surfaces like the Eames.
While I was feeding poplar boards through the band saw, I thought perhaps I could weave the poplar into the compound surfaces I need – much like basket weaving with flax. Of course, poplar is a lot more rigid so there would be gaps, but I thought I would give it a try anyway. Here’s the result.
At first, I did not apply any glue to the weave so that I can manipulate the shape. I then started to use wood glue to lock in some of the shape. The process was slow so I eventually switched to 5 minute epoxy. As you can see, there is some kind of compound curved surface but the result are not ideal. A mold is definitely necessary.
I think I understand what the limitations are with poplar now and the next step I should do is to do this properly with a mold. However, since I have not finalized the shape of the desk, I think material choice is still up in the air.
Next week is the concept presentation to the rest of the class. For me, I decided that the best way to convey my thoughts is a full-size model. Through discussions with Mark, I realized that I’ve been spending too much time designing the body of the table but not much the legs. Functionally, I know the legs must have a way to encapsulate cables if needed, but I have no idea how the body and the legs would come together. This full size model would be a way to help me think about it, especially since it will also help me think about the strength of materials that will be needed to support everything. The concept for the installation of this desk is a…
This model came about after discussions with my professor, Mark. The concept would be to have a “wrap around”, so that there is a profile of an airfoil but it’s not really there. Note that the surface really does wrap from the top all the way around the back and the bottom, and continues into the keyboard tray.
Here’s a possible leg profile that could hide cables running within it.
These drawings have more jet planes and boats in mind…
Here are some first round full scale sketch models. The focus here is to build them strong enough to hold the cables as well so in some cases the models are made of foam core but others are made of MDF. The keyboard tray should retract away and not drop down so low that the user’s knee would hit it. The keyboard try would hold a full size keyboard. Here it is modeled for a Mac slim size keyboard but inserts would be made to make it compatible with other keyboards. Here’s the cable tray. It is built large enough to hold a power strip. Unfortunately I don’t have any dummy cables, power adapters or power strips to mock it up right now.