Faculty members Ramiro Diaz-Granandos and Heather Flood, partners F-lab, designed the new SCI-Arc boardroom table, CHUB. Serving as the “central hub” of SCI-Arc, the table engages the broad social and cultural demands of the school by behaving as an infrastructural organism that can respond to a range of formal and informal events, states the school's news service. Visit more photos of this project and it's design/construction process in the gallery. Photos courtesy of F-lab. | SCI Arc News
Visit more photos of this project and it's design/construction process in the gallery. Photos courtesy of F-lab.
Ramiro and Heather Flood both teach at SCI-Arc. Last April they won a faculty only competition for the design of a new Board of Directors table for the school. The competition brief called for a table that seats up to 28 people and promotes an egalitarian environment. A circle seemed to be the most egalitarian shape for a table (there is no head of the table or no bad seat) and in order to sit 28 people, it had to be big (19' in diameter). However, the board only meets 4 times a year. We wanted to make something that could serve the school on a daily basis. This meant it had to be flexible in form so that it could be flexible in use. The 28 person table is actually made of 11 independent tables that can be reconfigured within the library to meet a range of the schools needs including study spaces for students,a seminar room, a space for dinner parties, exhibitions, staff meetings, academic council meetings, and Board of Directors meetings.
The table was made at SCI-Arc by a group of students led by Ramiro and Heather. The fabrication process combines hi-tech process such as milling and vacuum forming with low-tech process such as hand sanding and staining. Craftsmanship was top priority at every step of the process resulting in an end product where it is hard to tell where the machine ends and the hand begins in the fabrication process. The precision in shapes that they were able to generate using digital technology allowed them to create a form that is highly calibrated to the program. Plywood is the primary material. They thought of plywood as the denim of architecture and as the table as designer jeans. Essentially taking a material that is valued for its low-cost and durability and elevating its design status through a process of fine tailoring.
6 Comments
it's an absolutely stunning table. not sure about the other stuff in the news item:
...engages the broad social and cultural demands of the school by behaving as an infrastructural organism that can respond to a range of formal and informal events...
?
didn't mean that to sound like a criticism.
again, it's a really amazing table and, if i remember right from seeing construction pix, the way it segments and adapts is really nicely resolved.
the news copy just goes a little overboard. it's describing the job of a table, but with SO many buzzwords!
Are you new to architecture, Steven? :D
I agree actually, it looks really gorgeous, and yeah, if it comes apart and can be reconfigured then it can 'respond to a range of formal and informal events...'
Nice work!
Hahaha Archispeak!
Put this one in the "More is More" column. All the elegance and clarity of a Eric Owen Moss lecture introduction.
that is a SWEET table.
are those green disks for teleconferencing?
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