Source: ARCHITECT Magazine
Publication date: September 1, 2007
By Katie Gerfen
Steven Holl Architects
The Challenge: How do you “lighten” furniture?
Research and Solution: The concept of porosity has been a favorite point of exploration in the buildings of Steven Holl Architects, so applying that concept at the scale of furniture seems like a natural progression for the firm. The Riddled Furniture project not only examines how to design and fabricate perforated furniture using the CNC milling process, it also uses a new four-ply composite material ideal for CNC milling. The form of each object is intended to showcase the best properties of the innovative surfaces.
The furniture is playful in its approach to geometry and space ( see image gallery ). For example, five perforated boxes snap together to form the Riddled Cabinet. Each component influences not only the shape of the whole, but also the shape of the adjacent box. The overall cabinet is minimal in form; handles and hinge joints are incorporated directly into the CNC process, eliminating the need for applied hardware. Another item, the Riddled Table, casts shadows and reflections around itself as light permeates the glass top and filters through the closely folded base.
The four-ply composite material that the architects chose to use is itself an interesting innovation.
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