Street Furniture, Perth (Australia), 2017
Ateliervivo (Independent)
Live projects often depend on a university or other institutions to provide the required workspace, tools, program structure and supervision. A project to create street furniture using salvaged materials explored lean approaches to design and construction that would permit a group of architecture students and recent graduates to work independently of institutional support.
Prompted by a design studio exercise undertaken by second year architecture students at the University of Western Australia to create installations using salvaged materials, the owners of the nearby convenience store approached the group to request to create something similar for their storefront. Any further project, however, would rely on students to provide the organisation and resources required.
Social media was used by the group to self-organise and develop ideas remotely. Design and building sessions were run over several weekends during the summer holidays from a group member’s house. Free salvage materials were easy to come by, in particular timber off-cuts and wheel hubs. A personal collection of tools was all that was required to build the furniture.
The first pieces of furniture were two bar tables created using salvaged jarrah floorboards as a tabletop and a wheel hub base. A second set continued to explore the use of wheel hubs to create planters with jarrah beam off-cuts as supports.
Creating individual pieces allowed for easy transportation and an installation that could be added to with subsequent projects.
Collaborator: local convenience store
Tutor: Michael Phillips
Students: Jenny de Bruyn; Vinicius Gomes; Nicola Marchesi; Danielle Marinho; Maria; Izabel Munhoz; Tom Phillips; Brad Wetherall; Sheldon Ying
Research Question: How to create small scale live project opportunities outside of an institutional context.
Links: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgqjiwHvgQpJhhX-SSQvgag
Engineering, Australia, Ateliervivo, Architecture, Days, Client-funded, Permanent, 0-10, Undergraduate, +, Graduates, Commissioned
