Syllabus academic year 2010/2011
(Created 2010-07-25.)
LABORATORY FOR SPATIAL EXPERIMENTS: INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE & FURNITURE DESIGNAFO275
Credits: 6. Grading scale: UG. Cycle: A (Second Cycle). Main field: Architecture. Language of instruction: The course will be given in English on demand. Optional for: A4. Course coordinator: Professor Christer Malmström, christer.malmstrom@arkitektur.lth.se, Architecture and Built Environment. Prerequisites: At least three years approved full time education at university level (or a Bachelor degree) in architecture, or equivalent. The course might be cancelled if the number of applicants is less than 10. Assessment: Satisfactory completion of project and practical exercises, 80% attendance, active participation or attendance in practical sessions, seminars, lectures and study tours. Written exams: 0. Further information: If less than 10 students apply for the course, it might be cancelled.

Aim
To consider the processes involved in furniture design and interior design from a comprehensive standpoint, extending in the case of furniture design from design and presentation techniques to engaging in dialog with furniture manufacturers and the preparing of prototypes. Those participating begin by making sketches of some piece of furniture, going on from there to a full-scale model of it with use of authentic materials, account being taken of principles for industrial manufacture, rules and legal regulations applying both to furniture and interior design, and finally to manufacturing techniques and marketing procedures.

To develop participants’ consciousness and knowledge of matters pertaining to interior design.

To train by use of visual means the ability to comprehend a visual reality that is shown and, conversely, the ability to read off the reality that the picture of some given reality represents.

To provide participants a broad conception of modern furniture manufacture and problems connected with various types of furniture manufacturing techniques.

Knowledge and understanding
For a passing grade the student must

Skills and abilities
For a passing grade the student must

Judgement and approach
For a passing grade the student must

Contents
The course provides the student more thorough knowledge than obtained earlier concerning interior design and furniture design, particularly as regards theories of design, newly developed ecological and technological possibilities in connection with designing work, new types of materials and of joining together separate units or parts, components of different types not taken up earlier, matters of historical relevance, and further informationon on Scandinavian furniture design and interior design.

Approach

The course deals with theories of interior architecture and furniture design taken up in lectures, on-site visits and seminars. Application of the theories discussed take the form of constructing full-scale furniture prototypes with use of authentic materials.

The modeling processes considered take art, films and digital media, to a greater extent than design in a

traditional sense, as their point of departure. The shielding of creative processes from both artifacts and spatial typologies is seen as providing the basis for an experimental and investigative approach to design in which space, material expression and communication serve in harmony with one another to update the internal space and the impressions that its form creates.

The course provides the basis for t´considering matters of design in terms of the following themes:

Furnishings
Describing and analyzing space and its various components
Planning
Presentation of furnishings in terms of space, construction, material and details
Use of new materials and the interaction between ecology and technology this can involve
Rules that apply to furnishings and legal considerations involved

Furniture
Functions
Design
Design process from sketch to prototype
Design and presentation of furniture in terms of form, function and construction, technical considerations
New materials
Production
Production techniques taking account of ecological and technological parameters
Rules and legal considerations regarding furniture.

Literature
Boman, Monica. Svenska Möbler 1890–1990, Lund, 2003
Dahlgren, Torbjörn. Nordiska träd och träslag, Stockholm, 1996.