My design work varies from the poetic to the pragmatic. With self-initiated projects, I tend to design for the domestic sphere, at the scale of the individual, and often without a lot of technology. My academic projects involve greater ethnographic research and participatory methods and tend toward systems-, service-, and strategic-design. The images below represents the "making" aspect of my design practice, often in collaboration with Stephanie M. Tharp and our studio, materious.
The North/South/East/West shelf is mounted to a wall or in a corner in 4 possible configurations. Its name emphasizes these multiple orientations, allowing people to store and display special objects, as they see fit. Its diminutive size will only hold relatively few, small objects of importance; ones special and significant, but not at the center of daily life activities. The shelf is simple and pure in form; adaptable in its use; universal in its purpose; and conscientious of our environment, with its economy of material and ease of recyclability.
N.S.E.W. SHELF
Configurable wall shelf
Powder-coated steel
2006
Four different orientations
Several can be arranged vertically or horizontally, or both
Made from a single piece of 14 gauge steel, cut
Fits into corners