process
Timothy Allan
Principal, Locus Research,
competition creator
The original idea behind the competition was simple, to promote the intelligent use of sustainable materials in New Zealand by local designers. It would focus on the use of a material in new ways.
The idea for the exhibition was one which gestated over a 5 year period before a meeting with Fibre-Gen (Carter Holt) CEO Mark Smith on another matter. We were discussing design and I mentioned the idea. Marks enthusiasm for design and the idea saw this rapidly progressed into a proposal for Carter Holt management. With Mark's advocacy it got approved to go through to the next stage.
The new material 'Green Seal' was chosen as the subject of the exercise. The sustainable nature of the cellulose hardened pine made it the perfect choice.
The basis for this innovative technology was developed at Crown Research Institute Forest Research and later commercialised. Carter Holt's commitment to getting the material used in the furniture and joinery markets meant it was also the logical commercial choice as it would see the material used in many new ways and would familiarise many designers and specifiers with the potential of the material.
Carte Holts support catalysed the process and after a meeting with Robin Beckett and Steve Bohling we had the support of AGM Publishing which would provide important exposure and support from the design community.
The major design schools were approached and the project was discussed with Tim Miller and Simon Fraser at Victoria, Lynn Garrett and Tony Parker at Massey in, and Nick Charlton and Edward Prince at Unitec in Auckland. Their commitment to the concept saw its inclusion into their curriculum. This would allow the students time to really tackle the ideas put forward by the brief
in detail and provide some original solutions.
The team of Mark Smith, myself, Steve Bohling and Robin Becket met several times to get the details of the competition organised and then discussed the judging panel. The panel was chosen fairly unanimously for its variety of thinking, independence and experience. The Panel was Tim Miller, Peter Bossley, Mark Pennington, Humphrey Ikin, and Pradeep Sharma.
The last hurdle was venue?, everybody felt somewhere that general public and was not restricted to the design arts community would be the best solution. I met with Te Papa staff, but we were restricted by the narrative requirement of the exhibition and it was felt this would compromise the general idea. Interesting to note they can accommodate an exhibition of German furniture but not New Zealand ?. The Auckland museum was proposed and after a discussion with Director Rodney Wilson we met with exhibitions manager John Haydn, They were exited by the idea and decided to find the space to include this exhibition in their calendar in mid 2003 in the concrete arts galleries which were perfectly suited to showing this finished works.
in the mix
The students began their work in the last term. Each school chose a different was to approach the brief. Edward Prince (Unitec) introduced it to second year students in the general design course and some third year students, Simon Fraser (Victoria) briefed a third year product design class, and Lynn Garret (Massey) Instructed the Furniture 1 elective.
The option was given to make either quarter scale models and documentation or the actual object. This decision also prompted different approaches to be taken. Both Unitec and Massey structured their courses to achieve a full scale work, whilst Victoria produced scale models.
After attending some early concept presentations at Victoria Unitec and Massey it was clear and that there were going to be a lot of interesting and challenging ideas. Fairly soon there were some challenging timber orders being placed with the Manufacturer of Green Seal ( Pacific Hardwood ). A lot of thanks must go to Warren and Helga for finding the timber and somehow getting it to the schools in term. Although not without problems most of the timber arrived in the timeframe allocated to the students. A great level of interest from the professional community ensured that we would have a rounded exhibition the was representative of the whole design community.
The judging was organised to be held at Carter Holt Head Office in Manakau.
This venue helped with the judging as all the work could be laid out in full and the easily reviewed. The day of judging was a pretty good humoured event with a lot of discussion and interest from all the judges. The quarter scale models that some produced were beautifully constructed and physically illustrated the concept effectively. There were also some works which realised full size and put insitu that immediately explained the design and its intent.
Overall what impressed the most was the tremendous variety of thought. It provided a real insight into the depth of furniture/design talent that exists in New Zealand.
Simon Fraser
Programme Director, Industrial Design, Victoria University Wellington
In the broadest sense, Metaform was an opportunity for us to engage a new material that had been researched and developed in New Zealand. It was an opportunity to take this technology, investigate it and really question what design could add to this technology. That's something we should be doing more of in New Zealand - we're very good at just exporting the raw material, rather than creating a finished product.
We gave the Metaform brief to third year students, as they have reached a level of abiltiy and understanding to engage in a project like this. We encouraged them firstly to engage the material itself, to experiment and establish what its properties are, then to use that experimentation to say something about, or with, that material.
We used everything from full digital technology and CNC machining through to te love and care of traditional handcraft in this finest detail.
Lynn Garett
Senior Lecturer, Industrial Design, Massey University Wellington
I'm a big fan of furniture design for students for a number of reasons. In New Zealand, it is probably the last big area where many consumers interact with New Zealand-made product.
A designer, particularly one working in three dimensions, could get all the way through a course and never produce anything that's real. It's important for that reason alone.
Industrial designers might make models but they might never make the real thing. It's vital to have the ability to product something that's real, even it it's only one, so you can pick it up, sit on it, manipulate it, and walk around it. It's crucial to see what you've done and have the ability to explore it.
Some of the students had good workshop experience before they started the project and some of them didn't. The students who didn't have that knowledge had to make a big leap to connect their ideas with what they can physically achieve. There's a big gulf between what you can conceptualise on paper and what you can physically build.
Paula Buckley
Lecturer 3D Object Design, Unitec Institute of Technology
The brief was to challenge the pre-defined notions that were associated with wood or timber furniture. We looked at how the rigid shape of wood has stablished a basic shape and we wanted to challenge that. We looked at creating tables with wave systems that would technically be really hard but would challenge the history of everything that has been built out of wood previously.
When you look at these, wood is not your first consideration because the materials have been pushed to the extreme to create those forms.
Edward Prince
Lecturer 3D Object Design, Unitec Institute of Technology
They approached the briefs initially by doing some very broad conceptual brainstorming exercises in order to undertake the idea of transformation of metamorphosis and really get to grips with what exactly that meant. They started with a very wide range of ideas, which they could draw from, which was quite exciting. Once they'd scoped the brief, they went off and did quite a lot of experimentation in workshops.
The worked in teams going through a reflective process of identifying what worked well and how they could improve it. Experiemtns ranged from different forms of jointing, bending, finishing and identifying experimental properties. From that point they brought all that research together and went through the designing process of creating different solutions, then went off to prototype.