Our Design Platform is a set of values and concepts that exist to further explain our thesis framework. They give insight into processes of working, designing, and thinking within our collective, providing a foundation to work from and consider throughout design and fabrication.
Value of Inefficiency
Craft and innovation often emerge from time and energy intensive processes. When this concept is applied to seemingly mundane materials the results can transform them into valued pieces. The care involved in this process is evident in the final product and exposes latent beauty and subtle characteristics. This goes beyond a monetary gain in value and elevates the product into something that carries emotional or psychological value for the user and for the designer.
Digital Hangover
In response to the certain digital fabrication movements, we are interested in addressing the notion that designers are able to seamlessly translate a digital model into a physical form with very little effort. It is a rare occurrence that entire assemblies “snap together” without complications, that wood which is fresh off the mill doesn’t need hand finishing, and that tectonics are developed without extensive testing. Instead we acknowledge these processes and embrace them as part of the digital analog exchange. Furthermore, digital manufacturing tools are no longer the avante garde of design. They exist at a level equal with analog fabrication processes and the understanding of their relation must now be explored.
Loosening Precision
Materials often directly inform designs and the processes involved in production. We aim to allow for circumstantial results, loosening precision. While tectonics and details are often tied to materiality, a greater understanding of the material is developed by closley working with it and the resulting knowledge informs design. This approach also applies to the processes involved, as methods play just as an important role in developing design.
Post-Design Design
Because we design, fabricate, and assemble there is an understanding that the design will develop as it is produced. We can anticipate certain results, but the process of making often reveals unforeseen challenges and opportunities. Post-design design is more than just troubleshooting, it is the understanding that the initial idea is flexible and will most definitely adapt. Often in our early design process unknowns are understood and expected, anticipating that a solution will later be inserted into these gaps.
High Intensity/Low Duration- Throughout the next two weeks we will be rigorously designing and creating. The purpose of this quick set of crafted objects is to take the Design Platform and embody those within a physical format. Each project, though highly different from the next, carries the same platform as the next.