Completed with Marcy Villatoro and Anna Wiles
The lobby of the Academic Instructional Center. The north wall was chosen for the bench due to its proximity to the staircase and front doors.
This studio explores place, materials, and process through the lens of a site-specific public furniture/sculpture intervention. This project sought to use 2,000 board feet of reclaimed oak to refurnish the main lobby of the Academic Instructional Center located on the Georgia Institute of Technology’s campus. The basis for the design was motivated by the desire to use the limited wood supply from the GT TreeCycling program conservatively and reduce the production of wasted material.
Pinned-up fabric was converted into a mesh using photogrammetry.
The bench is designed using photogrammetry scans of draped fabric. Hundreds of photos are converted into a mesh which can be manipulated in Rhino to create the final design. A specific arrangement of boards is used to minimize unused lumber. Furthermore, by utilizing a steel frame for structure, the wood is strategically used to create a fluid form draping over the angular and rigid steel. This creates a stark contrast between the two materials and explores their unique properties and milling abilities. The bench appears to be made of a solid metal box and wooden form, but in truth, it is quite light and transportable, with all hardware hidden inside.
3D printed version of the bench and material calculations.
Section, Details, and Assembly.
The wood was modeled using photogrammetry scans of fabric which were digitally rendered using Rhino and Grasshopper. The overall construction utilized analog shop tools, welders, laser cutters, 3D printers, 3-axis CNC routers, and a water-jet cutter, all found within the Digital Fabrication Lab at Georgia Tech.
