Two Examples of User Interface Furniture Design

‘Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec: Interface’, written for the Bouroullec’s retrospective at the Pompidou-Metz, interprets key furniture designs by the Bouroullec’s through Gui Bonsiepe’s theory of user interface developed in his book Interface: An Approach to Design (1999). In the essay I argue that rather than designing for appearances as routinely assumed, the Bouroullec’s design specifically with the user in mind. The Bouroullec’s achieve this, I explain, by both sculpting their designs around the contours of the user and building into their designs a high degree of openness, which allows the user a greater degree of flexibility. Based on interviews and observation of the designers, the essay describes how the Bouroullec’s develop several different prototypes for their designs, with each one being subject to repeat testing in their studio.

In ‘It’s Hard to Find a Good Theory of Furniture’ I examine the transformation of the beholder into a user in Judd’s furniture designs of the 1980s and 1990s. Research for the essay included conducting an interview with Judd’s main assistant Dudley Del Baso in Marfa, Texas, on both the design and fabrication process of his furniture. With details about Judd’s design and fabrication process established, the essay then proceeds to unpick Judd’s theory of furniture design as developed in his essay ‘It’s Hard to Find a Good Lamp’ (1993), finally examining its relationship to both the furniture designs and the writings of Charles and Ray Eames.