Furniture Design: Principles, Thinking, Ethos, Processes, and Phases (2024)

RedVector RV-10502

This course has been discontinued

This course presents an overview of design principles and focuses upon the phases, processes, skills, and ethics of designing furniture.Design is a process. The ultimate goal of design is to synthesize tangible and intangible aspects and to create a unified whole out of an array of parts. Furniture design can be understood as an effort to infuse any number of intended purposes with physical parts, interrelated systems, structural forces, and utilitarian needs into a greater whole with attention placed upon the simultaneity of systems.Principles of design are introduced. Design ethics are values or aspects taken into consideration by designers during the design phase. In thiscourse accessible design;health, welfare, and safety considerations; green design and universal design are discussed. The process of designwill be outlinedand sub-divided into phases.

Paradigms indicate how things are done. They underpin general perceptions and assumptions about a subject matter held by a specific group of people. Furniture Design is taught and practiced by many students from a variety of disciplines. Architects, interior designers, industrial designers, and fine artists approach furniture design from different perspectives and these perspectives can offer insight to individuals from other academic fields.

Objectives

Course Objectives

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

Define the principles of design, which provide the criteria that describe the intended purpose of furniture, such as balance, continuity, unity, and variety, dynamism and stasis, hierarchy and emphasis, juxtaposition, rhythm and pattern, and scale and proportion
Discuss “design thinking” and identify the working methods and processes used when designing furniture, including empirical knowledge, intuition, judgment based on assessment, deductive and inductive reasoning, and creative and improvisational methods of working
Explain the ethos of design, which includes designing for accessibility, and designing according to codes, guidelines and standards for the health, safety, and welfare of individual users
Discuss the design process and identify different components of the design process, including sketching, drawing, computer rendering and model making
List the phases of design, including predesign, research, and programming, schematic design, design development, fabrication drawings, pricing and contract negotiation, shop drawings, templates, and working prototypes, fabrication, delivery and installation