ARCHITECTURE GRADUATE
ORB
Architecture Senior Studio 2024
Making Good and the Mythology of Repair
Instructor - Jessie Andjelic
Software - Rhino, Blender, Illustrator, Photoshop
This project was an introduction to the idea of “repair”, conducted as the initial phase of our final research studio, which allowed student to develop a unique position on the topic of repair and document their own design research.
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Performing physical repair on a found chair, in a current state of brokenness, was the focus. Documentation, contextual analysis, design drawings, and the act of repair were all undertaken during this phase.
DESIGN RATIONALE
BROKENNESS
The chair was broken in a few different ways. Missing its weaving, it was unusable in its most basic function, not being able to provide a place to sit. Instead, it acted as an image of the rocking chair - A bare bones frame ready to be worked upon. Also, because rocking chairs are not used as prolifically as they once were, a toy rocking chair, in today’s context, would no longer be used for play in the way of imitation and make believe.
PROCESS OF REPAIR
PAST - PRESENT - FUTURE
REPAIR
I wanted to push the chair’s potential of being a play object, taking its unique quality of being able to move back and forth and pushing that quality to a much larger extent, allowing the chair to rotate fully – backwards, forwards, and from side to side. The chair transitions from being a toy for the storyteller to a toy for the kinesthete.
The new design takes a spherical form, creating an orb by way of interlocking plywood arcs. The original rocking chair sits within the orb, providing a place to sit, and turning the orb into a usable toy for exploratory play. The chair is angled, in likeness with a regular rocking chair, allowing the sitter to alter their center of gravity at will. The original rockers are taken from the bottom of the chair and are repurposed to be used as handles, giving the sitter a mechanism to push themselves in whichever direction they wish to go.