Date of Award
Spring 5-30-2017
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Department
Furniture
First Advisor
Lothar Windels
Second Advisor
Benjamin Blanc
Third Advisor
Daniel Hewett
Abstract
During my time at RISD, I have discovered terms and theories such as defensible space, socio physical phenomena, the Savannah Hypothesis, Christopher Alexanders Intimacy Gradient. All of these things have been amalgamating into a defensible argument to the intuitive feelings I’ve had my whole life, and have been attempting to imbue into my work. If anything, my thesis body of work is one next step in a lifelong pursuit of discovering what is it to live- how to define and manipulate the intangible bounds of human life and experience; of the millions of tiny moments and decisions that make up the every new moment that is contemporary life. A question that has always plagued me has been whether or not to practice architecture or furniture design as a medium to most effectively distort and attempt to enhance the ways we live domestically. Do I change the walls that direct our space, or do I change the filling that is bound by those wall? Is it possible to change the ways we build, or is the evolution of our construction inevitable? An important moment that marks a takeaway as I move forward was in a course where a science professor was talking about a home in Alaska where the children has wheelchairs, so they lived mostly in a large open space with plastic curtains for walls to contain the heat. He then presented the question- “why do we have walls?”, as they are mostly unnecessary and costly. This moment was so mundane yet so incredibly exciting for me- to imagine spaces completely different from those were used to today in the future… perhaps modeled after Buckminster Fullers geodesic domes. I believe that the future of our architecture is changing, and hand in hand with which our furniture will change as well. I believe I now have the courage and resources coming out of my graduate education to pursue work that isn’t condemned by our architectural condition, but liberated by it. My work responds to architecture as well as furniture archetypes; to walls, to how I’ve grown up. It asks questions of them, takes inspiration from them, and stands aside from them.
Recommended Citation
Kable, Caroline, "Living rooms we don't live in anymore" (2017). Masters Theses. 121.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/121
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