Greg.Saul

ITDN 215
Furniture Proposal
04/04/2008Greg Saul
Introduction:
To design a piece of furniture from the stand point of the ritual of drinking coffee with a friend, using recycled pallets and rubber tubes as material.

Background:
In a project conducted in Victoria University of Wellington for the paper 215 we have been asked to analyse a personal ritual and use our observations to develop a piece of furniture made from pallets and rubber inner tubes that comments on or facilitates our ritual.

At this stage of the project our ritual has been define and analysed materials have also been analysed and research through design and process. The job of this report is to take this research and propose a set direction to take the project in, including time line aims etc.
This report outlines research undertaken, key insights gained from this research, aims and restrictions for the project and a proposed direction for this project based on key insights. This report will also cover a timetable and proposed method for continuing the project including deliverables and milestones.

Research:
Research was broken down into four main stages;
1. Materials historic research: Research into the two materials pallets and rubber tubes focusing on historic and current uses. The aim of this research will be to discover the cultural context of these materials as a possible source of rhetoric or function for the design.
2. Materials process research: Physical research into what can be done to these materials, how they can be worked and combined. The Aim of this is to find Aesthetic, functional and combinations and states of the two materials.
3. Ritual Historic Research: research into the history and contemporary surrounding the ritual of drinking coffee. Since this project is about our own personal ritual this information will be used to self reflect on my own ritual.
4. Ritual research: Through observation and self reflection this will document and explore the ritual of drinking coffee. Aims are to identify key elements to the ritual, to identify and reflect on meaning behind these elements.

1. Materials historic research:
Searching on the internet provides a wealth of historic and contemporary information on pallets and inner tubes.

These are a few points that were interesting and influential in thinking about the project.
• To a large extent pallets are not standardized, well actually they are but because so many different standards are used the result is that there is a large array of very different pallets.
• Soft wood pallets are often seen as disposable, and are thrown away after.
• Pallets are made from a large variety of woods, many are made from soft woods but a few are made from hard woods as well.
• Obvious but often pallets will travel all around the world.
• Pallets can almost be seen as a plentiful resource.
• The pallet industry is one of the largest consumers of the worlds wood supply.
Over 2 billion pallets in use in the United States everyday
• 50 percent of all wooden pallets are designed to make just one trip

2. Materials process research:

Wooden pallets and tire inner tubes were researched through process in two stages.
First of all the materials were experimented with in there complete form. Different configurations of the two were experimented with, details examined, interactions between people and the materials were explored and photographed.

In the second part materials were processed and combined, changing properties and form.

Results:
A detailed report on the materials can be found here: http://furniture.gregsaul.co.nz/2008/03/18/material-experiments-pallet-innertube/

Experiments and findings break down into four area’s:

User interaction:

• Pallet is large sturdy but light enough to be carried on the body.
• Rubber can be used as a strap, provides comfort against the body and shock absorption .
• Pallet is sturdy enough to support a subjects weight.

Material Configuration

• Inner tube and wood from pallet can be used to create an opposable shock absorbing joint.
• Inner tube can be used as a joining element for materials.
• Allows user to reconfigure materials through removing inner tube
• Reconfiguring and stretching back on.
• Provides a constant friction fit in joints where elements can be moved whilst being held in place by inner tube.

Surface:
• Polishing surface brings through colour of the wood.
• Pallets are often made from laminates of different woods, cutting across these presents a surface made up of different textures and colours.
• Running groves down the face of a piece of wood produces a surface that is very easily worn away by the user, this allows “marks” maybe from a ritual to be left in a surface.
• Running groves down a piece of wood can make the piece of wood flexible.
• Thin pieces of hard wood produce a sound when twang.

3. Ritual Historic Research
Wikipedia gives the definition for ritual as “A ritual is a set of actions, often thought to have symbolic value, the performance of which is usually prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community by religious or political laws because of the perceived efficacy of those actions”

4. Research ritual:
Research into the ritual of preparing and consuming a cup of espresso coffee with a friend.
Research into the ritual of drinking coffee was broken down into two main area’s, Qualitative observations through self reflection observation at cafe’s etc and Qualitative research where the ritual of drinking coffee was documented through video footage, and then dynamics of movement were computationally studied and diagrammed.

Quantitative:
• Record the preparation of a cup of espresso being made with a stove top espresso maker.
• Study the bodies movements throughout this ritual using a custom made piece of software we will track every movement that the body makes and build up diagram of movement that shows movement over time and amount of movement preformed in one space.
• Analyse diagrams produced by movement.
• Record two people having coffee at a table from above, again use custom software to track movement but this time colour will also be tracked so that the resulting diagram will represent the movement of different objects on the table.
• Analyse resulting diagrams, this time diagrams should also show interaction between the two users and between users and objects.
• List all actions preformed in the preparation of a cup of espresso coffee.

Qualitative:
• Go to a café and note down peoples interactions whilst drinking a cup of coffee, also note down own interactions and thoughts.
Ritual research conclusion:
A detailed report on the ritual can be found here: http://furniture.gregsaul.co.nz/2008/03/06/cafe-dynamics-study-01/

Key insights drawn from this section were:
• People sharing food for example cake over a cup of coffee will often follow the strict ritual of taking one piece then passing the plate back to the other person.
• When the last slice of cake is reached this will be divided in half each time as each piece gets smaller and smaller as one subject relies not to take the last piece. This gets to the point when often one piece of food is left on the plate.
• In sprinkling sugar on your coffee a fine even layer is applied as to sit on the foam and not sink in. The coffee is then stirred once as not to dissolve all sugar laden foam away.
• Whilst drinking a cup of coffee with a friend at a table, movement is localised to small parts of the table where cup and saucer are placed. H
• Head hands and feet also perform a large percentage of the total movement.
• Much movement happens between the two subjects as they pass sugar cake etc back and forth.
• The general direction of movement is directed towards the other person.

• The body moves a lot whilst preparing an espresso coffee. The subject travels from location to location where a specialised task is preformed, e.g packing coffee into the espresso pot. At each task small rigorous movements are preformed.

• Movements over coffee are to a large extent deliberate and ritualised, coffee cups plates etc are laid out on the tables surface, during use mugs are placed back in the same place each time.

Objectives
To produce a finished piece of furniture made from primarily recycled pallets and rubber inner tubes. The finished piece of furniture will talk about the ritual of drinking coffee, it might influence users perform the ritual in a similar way or bring awareness to the ritual by being a rhetoric on the ritual.
The key objectives of this project are
• To investigate the ritual of drinking coffee
• To produce a finished piece of furniture
• To research given materials, pallet and recycled rubber.
• To use the given materials in a way that acknowledges what they are and does not try to process them back to “raw materials”

Deliverables:
Concept presentation:
Presentation of at leased 3 different concepts. Concepts should be clearly presented and related to materials and ritual.
This will be presented as a visual presentation on the internet with sketches, photos and writing supporting and presenting each concept.

Development report:
Final concept will be chosen and developed with key areas and new objectives identified.
This will be presented as a online presentation with photo documentation of physical experiments used for development, sketches and writing.
Final Product:
One final model. Web based visual presentation describing the final product with consideration on how it relates to Materials used and the ritual of drinking a cup of coffee.
Proposed Direction:
I’m interested in the disposability of our given materials pallet and inner tube, how abundantly these are available since half of all pallets are disposed of after a single use. As a resource these materials are not standardised, pallets and inner tubes come in all different shapes and sizes each are made from different materials and have their own unique beauty.

For this reason I would like to design tools or a process that will transform any pallet and inner tubes into a unique piece of furniture that facilitates my ritual of drinking coffee. To this I propose that the act of the ritual defines the shaping of the material.

In the study of dynamics of the ritual I found that movement on the surface of a coffee table is greatly localised to those area’s where the ritual takes place, where mugs are placed and where interactions between people occur for example sharing of food.
If this movement was recorded, maybe as simple as placing paint on the bottom of the coffee mugs, then a map of movement would be built up on the coffee tables surface. Then an intelligent sanding robot that only sanded area’s without paint could be let loose on this surface, this robot would then sand away surfaces not used in the ritual. The resulting form would then be the product of the ritual and any other users that used the table would have to perform the same actions as the first couple in there ritual.
Process:
To further my project and generate a final design the following process will be followed.
See gantchart for key dates and mile stones.

Concept generation: Four general concepts that meet the aims set out in this report will be generated in the form of sketches, theses will be presented and analysed.

Concept selection: A concept will be chosen that fulfils aims set out in this report.
Focused Research: Research focused around the chosen concept will be carried out this will include research into the concept including material research. Research will be conducted through literature and through the act of designing.
Development: Using research material exploration, sketching and prototyping the chosen concept will be developed. Developments will be analysed using aims and requirements set out in this report s a basis for analysis.
Development prototype: A final prototype of the concept will be generated to a point where the action of the ritual can be tested on it.
Development testing: Peoples interactions with the product or system will be tested and observed, these will be documented and notes on how the design influences the users ritual of drinking coffee will be made.
Development refinement: Using data gathered in testing refinements will be made to the design.
Design documentation and presentation: Final design will be photo documented and a presentation describing the design will be made.

Reference list:

http://palletproject.blogspot.com/

http://www.polarinertia.com/jan05/pallets01.htm

Hard copy of report:

gant chart