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PROTOTYPE FOR A MODULAR LOUNGE
Eyebeam, New York, NY
2002
If we begin with the structure of a place, then we’re working from the top down. Our wall, for example, would have to contain within it our seats, our tables, our shelves; our seats/tables/shelves would already have an order, would already have a place.
So we start instead from the bottom up. Not the beach but grains of sand; the grains of sand might just as easily become concrete – the grains of sand might make a building as well as a landscape.
Instead of structuring a place, instead of a system of building, we start by structuring a material, a fabric – we develop a system of material, a system of surface.
Instead of structure that supports a surface, instead of a surface laid over a structure, we develop a principle of economy: a surface that functions as structure and, at the same time and in the same place, a structure that functions as surface.
Bits of surface, like grains of sand, like fish-scales. Connectors between bits. The connectors are flexible, the bits are rigid; the bits are hard, the connectors soft.
A system of connectors. The connectors are connected. The surface twists and turns: flexible’ the surface is tied and bound: load-bearing. From curved to flat and then from flat to curved, etc.
Surface laid over surface, to make depth; surface bending and folding, to
make structure. A surface you pull out, a surface that bulges, to make furniture.
This project view belongs to Eyebeam, and is threadged with:
(I,
L,
T,
A)