Thesis Planning

These are some drawings from the notebook for this project. They were never meant for display - only to record my ideas so I would not forget them.

I decided to explore the idea of modular systems. I wanted the furniture to break into small, interchangeable pieces so it will fit in my car, and it turns out this is great because it can be combined to make all sorts of useful items.

(Click on photos to expand.)

		Planning - August to November
		Production - November to January
		Product - January and February
		Development

	Hinge	Thinking of ways to make furniture that is collapsible, foldable, transformable, etc. I decided to limit myself to a hard panel system for this project and focused on how to connect them.
	Chair	Connecting the panels in different orientations would make the system more versatile - in this drawing I considered a rotating sphere which locks in at least one degree of freedom.
	Diagonal Holes	One of the major breakthroughs of the project - the idea of connecting the panels without any space between them. The really clever part which made this seem impossible at first is to put the joining screws at an angle to the surface. (Thanks to HME for that idea)
	Blocks	How can I get threaded holes oriented with enough precision to guarantee that the edges would meet? How many different orientations of holes would maximize the system's versatility? What medium would support so many perforations and be strong enough to sit on?
	Two Holes	After I had started manufacturing the aluminum blocks, the idea occurred to me of using holes as illustrated, which would be tremendously easier to build besides being stronger. However after making this drawing, I saw that this design would eliminate some of the symmetry.
	< Block	This is the final form of the blocks, rendered for a brochure I presented at the thesis show.

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Thesis Planning