The goal of this course was to help students better understand both the design of furniture as well as the fabrication associated with its creation. While I had designed and built some furniture prior to this, this project provided me with an opportunity to study and better understand the connections that could be made between two dissimilar materials in a contemporary way. It was my intent to use this new contemporary thinking along with my knowledge of woodworking and traditional joinery to create a light form that “suspends” the user, holding them above the wood frame in new way.

The wood frame of the chair was made of maple hardwood and was assembled using inserted mortise and tenon joinery. Walnut was used for the tenons to provide some contrast in order to celebrate the connection rather than hide it. Mortises were added to the top of the vertical wood members of the frame. By doing so, it created a space to support the vertical steel members, used to suspend the seat. The steel members were then mechanically fastened to the wood frame. A bent, maple plywood seat was then attached to the top of the vertical steel members via a tapped hole at the top of the steel members.

Embedded Connections was on display in the UNM School of Architecture Fabrication Lab Gallery from May 2014 - May 2015.