Furniture Design

It will age, and one day—when I am no more—disappear

He transformed into mortal clay or ashes.17

The design is a solid wooden cube. The sitting surface is concave over grooves that are convex—the lower and upper parts of a sphere—thus symbolizing the convergence of life and death, heaven and earth. Since it is designed for outdoor use, rain runs off in the grooves. When fixed, the solid oak block sits on a foundation, raised 1 inch (2.54 cm) above the ground. An indoor version is also available. Both are 15 x 15 x 15 inches (38 x 38 x 38 cm). The direction of the oak's grain runs vertically; thus, one sits on the end grain of the block. To get oak of a sufficient diameter in Europe, the tree must be between 450 and 500 years of age.

In 2001, The Block was selected as one of five pieces for the annual SE cabinetmak­ers' exhibition at the Museum of Art and Design in Copenhagen. In 2004, The Block was acquired and exhibited at the Trapholt Art Museum in Kolding, Denmark.

Pathways took eight years and $150 million to develop.18 Steelcase responded to the market forces that require companies to move and reconfigure themselves with inconceiv­able speed. Pathways includes every element of an office, from flooring to walls to lighting, all designed to work together seamlessly.

The need to constantly integrate new technologies into offices was a prime focus for Pathways' designers. Steelcase realized that many clients were renovating older buildings, such as loft warehouses or existing offices, and facing prohibitive rewiring costs in the process. Consultants from Xerox's research division had advised Steelcase that these issues would become more complex over time. Pathways is a designed solution to avoid cable gridlock, which meant creating extensive cavities inside the furniture system for equipment cables (Figures 4.92, 4.93, and 4.94).

Starting with its flooring systems, the designers define private areas with walls and doors, then customize the surfaces of exterior or immovable walls with the Pathways Addition components (i. e., selecting fabrics for acoustical privacy or whiteboards for meet­ing areas). Individual niches can be formed from the open spaces that remain, using 2-foot (61-cm) and 4-foot (122-cm) partitions (Figure 4.95).

To create teamwork areas, the Pathways Conjunction system forms post-and-beam structures that can be closed off with curtains and fitted with shelving, whiteboards, and digital screens. Feeding off wiring that runs through the floor, its hub posts and tables offer spots for free-floating workers to plug into the company's data flow. Its ambient lighting line illuminates the space with a soft glow.

Jimmy's Buffet is a movable sideboard for a residential dining room setting in which guests can serve themselves. The design allows dining accessories to be stored and easily retrieved from five sections. In addition, the top surface of the buffet allows ample space for serving and displaying food (Figure 4.96).

The buffet incorporates 10 full-extension drawers, each 16 inches (40.6 cm) deep, and offers a variety of widths, ranging from 6 inches (15.2 cm) to 24 inches (61 cm), and a variety of heights, ranging from 6 to 12 inches (15.2 to 30.4 cm). Six clear acrylic casters enable the buffet to roll freely for cleaning and spatial rearrangement.

The buffet is fabricated using handcraft techniques and industrial materials. The layout of the drawers was inspired by the video game Tetris, with various shapes stacking tightly over one another. Materials for the buffet include Ve-inch (3 mm) bending birch plywood, cherry lumber and %-inch (2 cm) cherry plywood, neo­prene 60, full-extension glides, acrylic casters, and stainless steel drawer pulls. The form is com­posed of five individual storage sections. Each section is "wrapped" with four V8-inch (3-mm) thick bending birch plywood laminations, mechanically assembled using ^-inch (1.25 cm) through-bolts, composed by using 2-inch (5-cm) thick blocking to isolate each section. The recessed reveals are faced with 3/16-inch (5-mm) thick, black neoprene 60. Overall dimensions of the buffet are 36 inches high, 60 inches wide, and 21 inches deep (91.4 cm high, 152.4 cm wide, 53.3 cm deep) (Figure 4.97).

Figure 4.98 Detail—cherry, bending

birch, and black neoprene

60. Photography by Jim Postell, 2005.