Formful Wood. Explorative Furniture

Zurich / Lucerne, Switzerland, 2019

Collaborators: Christoph Schindler & Florian Hauswirth (HS Lucerne), Lukas Ingold (ETH Zurich), Artek

Design and construct a plywood seat! Based on the famous L-leg, which was designed by the architect Alvar Aalto for the Finnish furniture company Artek, we set up an experimental study project to investigate the potential and design possibilities of glued and bent wood. In close cooperation with Artek, 28 students of architecture at the ETH Zurich and students of object design at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts not only turned the material on its head but also questioned the sensuous qualities of the objects, their construction as an architectural place and sitting as a social event.

Two encounters, Artek's L-leg and the flat veneers in the factory, opened a wide range of experimental approaches presented by the designs. Once the students had received a detailed introduction to manufacturing techniques and tools in the workshop, they settled down and began to work on their projects. The students’ task was to make new seating objects in very individual ways. Students developed and made their own pieces of furniture but first researched their own concept of sitting: who sits on it, where and, most importantly, how? These concepts had to be developed in a short seven-week period, and construction principles or forms had to be tested at various scales and presented several times. In the end, there was a full-scale prototype for almost every project.