REF RIG-A-SOFA
Gregor Jones D1.4 Personal Project BA(hons) Design
Contents:
Brief, Rationale & sustainable factor: Page 1 . Introduction . Personal brief . Rationale for brief . Sustainable factor Design Development: page 2-3 . Initial ideas . Design Development Final Concept: page 4 . Final Design . Sustainability Evaluation: Page 5 . Final design outcome . Areas of improvement . Project evaluation Bibliography: page 6
Brief, Rationale & Sustainable factor Introduction: Students where given a brief and where informed to produce their own brief and design based on the brief given to them. One main factor that had to be incorporated was that the final design outcome had to be sustainable. Personal Brief: The main proposal of this brief is to produce a piece of furniture that has been created from items that have been sent to scrap yards. This product is to show that not everything is scrap but it can be changed into items that you use on a daily basis, and not only that but it can produce a pleasurable visual effect on the user. By looking into the changes the product can make to the environment is also a big factor, with factors of sustainability being researched and used. Ideas of how to overcome these factors is by searching and researching into the scrap industry and what happens to the rubbish. The summary of this brief is to create a piece of furniture which has been created from reused items from scrap yards and make it into a piece of furniture that gives a homely feel and pleasing to look at and use. Sustainability has to be incorporated in the design. Rationale for Brief: The rationale behind the brief is that the amount of scrap that people chuck/take to scrap yards is unbelievable, just because the item may have a few faults of broken, people don’t think about how it is affecting the world. I feel that the way people treat scrap is unbelievable and that it can be used in many ways, instead of just throwing it out. Looking at 3rd world countries such as Africa they build huge amounts of items from Discarded items they even build their Houses from these items which we just Use them throw away. When looking into this I found that most Of the items we take to the scrap yard ether get crushed and sold on or melted down to their basic form (Recycle) this affects the world because of the gasses that are produced when the items can be reused as a different item with a different function.
Sustainable Factor: Major retailers and consumer brand companies are factoring in the environmental and social implications of design to their decision making process. Sustainability is a good business practice offering economic advantages as well as a positive public relations message. The Essentials of Sustainable design will help you understand and face the challenges to achieving sustainability with your product choices and design.
Initial ideas:
A old fridge turned into a long backless chair.
Used tyres from a car converted into a table with sheet steel on top.
Old tyre made into a foot rest with added padding on top.
Using a old computer it can be converted into a stool that swivels around with your momentum.
Converted old style bath-tub into a table with foot space cut out.
American style bin changed into a chair for any type of user.
Broken vending machine used as a chair with the inside changed into a padded seat.
This page displays some of the initial ideas that came from the brief, with images of what the item may have looked like before. Car bonnet converted into a art desk with sheet metal from a car.
Design Development
These images below show the development of the product, focusing on the brief.
This image shows the product with a backrest which gives the user more back space. This image is the sofa without a backrest and it gives the sofa a better, sleek view. The cushion of the sofa are made from re-used car materials so that it is sustainable as the brief informs.
The sofa will have storage components in the armrest which will use the fridge door handles to be able to open them.
The product which will be used and converted into a new product.
Final design Storage space
The final concept for my idea “Ref rig a-sofa� has been created in 3D studio Max. It shows the function of the chair and the proposed colour as well. TOP RIGHT shows the storage component open and below that shows the storage component closed. I have placed the sofa in the environment it can be used to give the user a better view of how it shall look.
The handle is based on how a retro fridge handle looks like to give the sofa the feel of a fridge.
Sustainability: This sofa is completely sustainable, it will be made from old refrigerator parts taken from scrap yards. The material used to make the cushions will be made from old car seats, which makes it fully sustainable because it has been created fully from scrap yard components. The handles which allow you to open the storage are taken from Retro fridges, this is to give the sofa more characteristics of a fridge.
Evaluation: The final outcome of the “Ref rig a-Sofa” is based on the way the world discards scrap without thinking twice about it, I have managed to find a way to put across my message in my design by creating a piece that is both environmental friendly in the way it doesn’t just get chucked away it gets used as another product without having to burn gasses or waste trash, and sustainable because here in England we are running out of space for all the rubbish so why not re-use it and create spectacular pieces of furniture. The sofa is able to come in different colours so it will appeal to a wider audience.
Area’s of improvement: Although I am very happy with my final outcome there is space to improve for example one of the storage compartments could be chilled so that you can keep a drink nice and cold when watching the tv, but it should be able to eject the cold because no one wants to sit on a cold sofa. More improvements could be the size it could be a single sofa or even corner sofa these are all improvements which can be easily done.
Project evaluation: I enjoyed this project because it let us show what we can do without guidance, I especially liked the way we could wright our own brief. This helped me to create my own mind set and develop a great outcome. The involvement of substantiality was great I have always been fascinated by sustainability and I was able to incorporate this into my design which I found worked really well with the way I look at the world. One problem that I found difficult to overcome was the amount of guidance we didn’t have, although this is good I found it hard to work around because I didn’t know if I was going in the right direction or not.
Bibliography:
http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=smeg+fridge&hl=en&client=safari&sa=X&rls=en&biw=1280& bih=627&tbm=isch&tbnid=FIYXQM-8_R4wZM:&imgrefurl=http://freezezer.com/%3Fp%3D9799 &docid=IULKD9mEdVxGlM&imgurl=http://www.traffordcentre.co.uk/pictures/Blogs/~iDjpU3-k/ MS_green_SMEG_fridge_freezer.jpg&w=460&h=600&ei=9L-qT5SXMISA8gPM_qiOBQ&zoom=1 &iact=hc&vpx=291&vpy=4&dur=824&hovh=256&hovw=197&tx=121&ty=120&sig=11258100637 2498817323&page=2&tbnh=127&tbnw=97&start=14&ndsp=28&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:14,i:176 http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=retro+fridge&hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&prmd =imvns&source=lnms&tbm=isch&ei=x7-qT_T-E5GChQeSlsCdCg&sa=X&oi=mode_ link&ct=mode&cd=2&ved=0CGIQ_AUoAQ&biw=1280&bih=627#hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&tbm=isch&q=smeg+fridge&revid=1821041038&sa=X&ei=yb-qT5nACYzB8QO366SSDw&ved=0 CD8QgxY&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=94f0a608f7b5b083&biw=1280&bih=627 http://www.sustainable-furniture.co.uk/ http://www.davidcolwell.com/ http://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/2010/sustainable-futures http://www.mcdonough.com/cradle_to_cradle.htm