Occupiable Sculpture
For my body-conscious design, I was tasked to accommodate an autonomous sitting and kneeling position for the human body. I started by designing a chair with clay. I created a cube and a triangle with my clay with carved-out areas to accommodate the different seating positions. The clay looked like a person swiped their hands across the solid structure, as it was more of a subtractive process. The clay sculpture was connected with swills that continued and connected the two main pieces. For my precedent, I chose something opposite to my organic and smooth clay. My precedent, the UK Darlington Brick Train Sculpture by David Mach protrudes out of the natural hillside and is entirely made of bricks. I was inspired by the building method and rules for creating an organic and fluid object out of geometric bricks. So, I applied the rules and brick dimension to my clay sculpture by using Rhino and Grasshopper. This changed a rigid object into a fluid structure. I tried to encapsulate the juxtaposition of nature and man-made by using a brick, one of the first design inventions, in a liquid structure. My final iteration allows for kneeling or crouching within a cove and sitting on top of the structure for a higher position. One position is open while the other is closed, furthering the juxtaposition of the chair. I love how the form and the function of the design contradict each other and challenge rules, proving opposites can be harmonious.
Clay Model
