Nurturing Nature

Thesis

Nurturing Nature explores balancing routine with flexibility through furniture. Modular furniture presents a choice to users between frequent reconfiguration or keeping a piece static. This project will physically represent this choice through a custom piece of furniture, encouraging users to reflect on their relationship with modularity.

؜Kaia

Modularity

؜Kaia

؜modular furniture presents people with the option between continuously utilizing the modularity and constantly changing around their furniture, or messing around with the modularity a bit, then finding a way they like the furniture and keeping it that way permanently. we wanted to create a physical representation of that

Growth & Time

Jade

Early Sketches

؜Kaia

we did lots of sketching in the beginning of our process to aid us in figuring out the logistics of our concept. one of the main things we decided was what type of furniture would we be building, and we picked shelving. part of the reason we picked shelving is because we didn't want the selves to just be functional but also to be used to create sort of wall mosaics and shelves

why shelving

Design Elements

؜Modular

Flexible

Interactive

Early Prototypes

؜Kaia

some of the feedback we got on our early prototypes was that they were sort of giving a sharp vibe and it was a contrast between the flowing growing vines

Revision

Jade

Storyboard

؜Kaia

Final Iteration

؜Kaia

؜for our final iteration we landed on a dovetail and peg attachment system

Fabrication Overview

The shelves are made from layers of plywood to create a cookie cutter aesthetic. To achieve this we need to cut sixteen identical layers, then align, glue, and clamp the shelf together. Misalignment in cutting or gluing could make the modular pins useless, ruining the shelf.

Jade

Wood Cutting

Pattern Routing

CNC Routing

Slow
Inaccurate
At NuVu

Fast
Very Accurate
Not at NuVu

Jade

CNC Cutting

Jade

Final Assembly

Jade

Reflection

؜Explored furniture design
Explored integrating nature in design
Learned to use CNC machining

Or