March 23, 2022

Inaugural Landscape Architecture Furniture Studio

During Autumn 2021, the Furniture Studio, a legacy course in the Architecture department, was offered to Landscape Architecture students for the first time. While the focus on craft and material remained constant, the context of the work provided a unique scale and scope not previously used in furniture studios.

Architecture faculty members Kimo Griggs and Steven M. Withycombe worked with 12 MLA and BLA students to design and fabricate landscape furniture.

Students receive a primer on lumber dimensions and wood types in the Fab Lab (photo by Sihong Zhu)

From infrastructure to buildings to landscapes, the built environment is furnished at a variety of scales. Furniture has been a critical organizing feature for centuries, signifying power, providing perspective, defining and supporting social organizations, comfort and health. Learning how to design and make furniture in the landscape is an education in landscape architecture writ small, including design strategy, ethics, team-work and sustainability. Investing in lasting materials and methods to produce full-scale, carefully-considered designs provides an extraordinary and lasting student experience. The inaugural Landscape Furniture Studio of Autumn 2021 produced a wide array of excellent designs, setting a high bar for future students.Professor Kimo Griggs

For her “Acoustic Chair”, Laura Swett bends steel angle along a constantly-changing curve using the Hossfeld Bender. (Photo by Kimo Griggs)

Students especially appreciated the course for advancing dialogue in interdisciplinary exploration at an object-level and the opportunity to work intimately with fabrication processes prioritizing the details of craft and making.

Furniture exists in every built environment, and as a result, it sits on the nexus of so many different fields. Kimo often said that you could “resolve the world in a piece of furniture” and I think that applies just as well to landscape design, architecture, city planning, and every other built environments field. It was so valuable to be able to work with architecture professors, as well, because it’s very easy to get ensconced in your department’s way of thinking. I feel that I have learned so much more having been exposed to different pedagogies in this very departmentally collaborative studio.Isa Lewis, BLA ‘23
Student standing next to their 3D printed chair
3D printed chair by Isa Lewis set in the context of the Burke Gilman Museum steps (Photos by Kimo Griggs + Isa Lewis)
3D printed white chair sitting on concrete steps
3D printed chair by Isa Lewis set in the context of the Burke Gilman Museum steps (Photos by Kimo Griggs + Isa Lewis)


Furniture studio fit perfectly into the MLA sequence. It complimented the work I was doing in Materials Craft and Construction and helped me understand both assemblies and materials more deeply. It’s so rare to have a full design-build experience in school, especially on a design that is all your own, and it was incredibly gratifying to experience the entire design process in a microcosm of a single piece of landscape furniture.Jesse Sleamaker, MLA ‘23
Static Sling Bench by Jesse Sleamaker (Photos by Kimo Griggs) – “Inspired by old-fashioned sling beach chairs, I wanted to play off the idea with two interlocking frames. I designed the bench for my own learning – knowing that I wanted to learn both metal work and wood work, I designed a bench vertical slats, each seat slat independently joined to a back slat, “hung” between a white oak and steel frame.”
Static Sling Bench by Jesse Sleamaker (Photos by Kimo Griggs) – “Inspired by old-fashioned sling beach chairs, I wanted to play off the idea with two interlocking frames. I designed the bench for my own learning – knowing that I wanted to learn both metal work and wood work, I designed a bench vertical slats, each seat slat independently joined to a back slat, “hung” between a white oak and steel frame.”


This longed-anticipated course will be part of the annual studio rotation moving forward. We’re looking forward to the interdisciplinary innovations that will come out of this studio for years to come.

(Click on the photos below for more information on each piece.)

Student working on a piece of concrete
Darryl Vallejos removes the forms from his concrete base (photo by Kimo Griggs)
Students with their pieces after a successful concrete pour
Students with their pieces after a successful concrete pour. (photo by Sihong Zhu)


Person sitting on a wood bench
Zach Myers pondering the perfect plant palette to frame his piece. It will soon be nestled in a shady corner of the growing woodland area of the Cass Turnbull Memorial Garden in Capitol Hill.
Double-sided wood bench
Double-Sided Butterfly Bench by Zach Myers. Materials: Steel & Tigerwood (Goncalo Alves).
(Photos by Kimo Griggs)


Person giving a thumbs up standing next to their project in the fabrication lab
Person sitting on a bench taking a selfie
A modular piece by Harriet Evans that could be assembled and disassembled quickly for people who were unhoused or living out of their car. (Photos by Kimo Griggs)


Person sitting a low to the ground wood chair
Low Easy Chair by Yi-Lin Khor. Prototype in the Fab Lab (Photo by Kimo Griggs)
Student working on wood chair
Low Easy Chair by Yi-Lin Khor. Final assembly instructions: https://youtu.be/NhNCnLHAQKI
(Video by Yi-Lin Khor)


 

Final review jury including Daniel Winterbottom, Steve Withycombe, Kimo Griggs, and Penny Maulden. (Photo by Vanessa Lee)