Kazuki Guzmán

In this course, students will gain exposure to 'real-world' design practice, while developing a range of wood-shop skills. Working closely with a local furniture and home-goods company Offcut, students will design and prototype tabletop objects to be exhibited at the Offcut showroom in Chicago. Through a series of informative presentations, lectures, field trips and skill-building exercises, students will explore many of the challenges facing designers today; financial, social and environmental. Course readings and discussions will vary, but typically address topics that will help students contextualize different approaches to designing objects while engaging in contemporary cultural concerns of material life cycles and sustainability. Some of the designers and texts we will examine throughout the semester include, but not limited to: Bruno Munari – Art as Design, Junichiro Tanizaki – In Praise of Shadows, Soetsu Yanagi – The Beauty of Everyday Things, Seetal Solanki – Why Materials Matter, Monica Khemsurov & Jill Singer – How to Live with Objects. The course will consist of introductory skill-building exercises followed by a main project to design an accessory or furniture piece from offcuts of wood provided by Offcut.

This furniture studio will critically engage the chair as an archetype. Chairs have long been a fascination of designers as they require a developed understanding of structure, material, and form. Importantly, chairs represent the cultural mores of the time in which they are produced and are inextricably linked to larger systems of power, technology, and economy. This course will explore the chair as a fluid, dynamic furniture category that is in a reciprocal relationship with culture, technology, and politics and will emphasize a hands-on approach to design and production.