Jun 26, 2008

Fatwall 2

This is an alternate of a theme, see pre-furnathon 08 post of Australia inspiration. It is the idea of compressing all furniture into one space, sort of a Fifth Element space travel / sleeping in your chest of drawers concept.

Closet Puzzle


Closet puzzle: A sheet triplay pine 4'x8 '(3 / 4 ") again under the principle of zero waste.

By Inigo Ortiz Monasterio
iomonasterio@yahoo.com.mx

Picnic Puzzle


Picnic puzzle: In a piece of wood 3 / 4 "(4'x8 ') gives a picnic table under the principle of zero waste. The production is economic and simple.
By: Inigo Ortiz Monasterio iomonasterio@yahoo.com.mx

Dining Puzzle


Dining puzzle: From a sheet of triplay 3 / 4 "(4'x8 ') yields a full dining room (1 table + 4 chairs ) under the principle of zero waste.
The production is economic and simple.

By: Inigo Ortiz Monasterio iomonasterio@yahoo.com.mx

SOF Turtle Shell

SOF (Skin-on-Frame) Turtle Shell:

Multi-use, light weight; never leave home without your shell!
(click on image for higher resolution)

-The Big "O",
PDX

The Coffee Table


The Coffee Table:
Not a whole lot to say about it. I just like the "tapered structure" concept as well as the potential for a nice exposed joint there all the horizontal wood meets the vertical piece. Enjoy,

The Big "O",
PDX

Modular Chair

The Concept:
The Design:
Basically you could mass produce this module many times over. People can use them as a chair (2), love seat (4), or couch (6), or just an ottoman (1). If not against a wall the back can be used as shelves and under the seat you can store "stuff" as well.

Sorry for the late start; my sketchbook didn't have access to a scanner.

Alias: The Big "O"
City: PDX

Jun 25, 2008

Dinnerware & Furniture, Ideas about BioPlastics.

I had another thought today about how to deal with the overcrowding in landfills (as it relates to furniture). The idea came to me as I was eating dinner. I bought food from a place nearby and I noticed that they had that nifty to go box that wasn’t just recyclable, it was biodegrable as well. Basically if my dinnerware ended up in the landfill it would biodegrade within a few months. It's strong stuff, microwave safe, just as good as the normal paper junk. I also noticed that it was pretty strong and I could imagine if you had enough of the material it would be just as strong as plastic.

I found this online which explains about the material:

Bioplastics are a new generation of biodegradable & compostable plastics, derived from renewable raw materials such as starch (e.g. corn, potato, tapioca etc), cellulose, soy protein, lactic acid etc., that are not hazardous in production and decompose back to carbon dioxide, water, biomass etc. in the environment when discarded. Cornstarch is currently the main raw material being used in the manufacture of bioplastic resins. Mater-Bi (main component corn-starch), and PolyActide (PLA) (made from corn-starch as well) are currently the 2 main resins (raw materials), being used today in the production of compostable & biodegradable plastics and are certified for compostability under standards set by international organizations. However, other resins are coming into the market made from potato starch, soybean protein, cellulose etc. Most of these are currently not certified for compostability, though some are for biodegradability. The field of bioplastics is constantly evolving with new materials and technologies being worked on and being brought to market.

So why not use this stuff for furniture? Especially the types of furniture that tends to be thrown away. Maybe things like childrens furniture? Shelving? Maybe its best suited for smaller objects, I don’t know.


here's what the dinnerware looks like
and here's my well-designed couch after being left outside for a few months. Super comfy.

Letterscape


I was listening to Nina Simone the other day and thinking about words and letters. I thought there were some interesting shapes and combinations. I have just limited myself to English but Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, etc. might make some great combinations.

Note: at this point we here at Furniture Gang are unsure of who is posting. If you don't give some indication, then the opportunity to post on here is defunct. Name or alias, and city might be helpful for everyone. Thanks

Jun 24, 2008

Don't build another piece of furniture

The Original
San Francisco (ork)
Public Transport (Copenhagen, London, New York tube)

I have had this thought for some time now and Ive done a bit of research on old furniture. It turns out that a good chunk of our landfills are filled with furniture and appliances.

It's clearly a problem. It's really interesting that people discard well built furniture for new pieces made of particle board, that are of a lesser quality. There are many reasons for this, like the older stuff looks like hell, or the upholstery is worn, or you get bored with it, etc. So I thought about how one could reuse older furniture. More particularly, how to keep it out of the landfill.

For one, I think we could stop accepting furniture at the dump. Garbage collectors should refuse to take it. Right now, I think its part of their collection duty if you leave it near the trash bin. Or we could start a supplementary collection, kind of like the recycling, or the once a month yard waste collection. There are probably more ideas floating around the internet machine. The opportunities for reuse are endless.

I've explored one solution. The main idea is that it's possible to tie together different structural differences with an common element. In this case, the upholstery. Whole living rm/ dining rm/ bedroom sets could be developed using this method.

This is one of those ideas that seems ridiculous or obvious, and maybe it is.