Erik Newman

Furniture shapes how we sit, gather, work, and inhabit space. This studio introduces furniture as both a design category and a fabrication discipline, grounding students in form, proportion, structural logic, material behavior, and full-scale making.

Working primarily in wood, with selective use of light metals, students develop fluency in essential shop processes including joinery, machine operation, lathe turning, and iterative full-scale prototyping. Emphasis is placed on human scale and performance: how the body informs dimension, how materials carry load, and how construction decisions shape both function and meaning.

Projects progress from focused material and joinery studies to resolved furniture pieces. Making is treated as a mode of thinking, with mockups and prototypes used to test, refine, and evaluate ideas through direct engagement with materials.

A primary objective of the course is to build sustained confidence working in the Sullivan Fabrication Center, integrating shop practice into the design process and establishing fabrication as a core component of work at SAIC.

This course is for students seeking foundational experience in furniture design and full-scale fabrication, including Designed Objects students preparing for advanced studios such as Chair Studio and Advanced Furniture, as well as students from Sculpture, Fiber, Fashion, Architecture, and related disciplines. It is typically taken in the second year as a gateway to advanced furniture coursework and pairs well with CNC, with no prior furniture experience required.

Furniture shapes how we sit, gather, work, and inhabit space. This studio introduces furniture as both a design category and a fabrication discipline, grounding students in form, proportion, structural logic, material behavior, and full-scale making.

Working primarily in wood, with selective use of light metals, students develop fluency in essential shop processes including joinery, machine operation, lathe turning, and iterative full-scale prototyping. Emphasis is placed on human scale and performance: how the body informs dimension, how materials carry load, and how construction decisions shape both function and meaning.

Projects progress from focused material and joinery studies to resolved furniture pieces. Making is treated as a mode of thinking, with mockups and prototypes used to test, refine, and evaluate ideas through direct engagement with materials.

A primary objective of the course is to build sustained confidence working in the Sullivan Fabrication Center, integrating shop practice into the design process and establishing fabrication as a core component of work at SAIC.

This course is for students seeking foundational experience in furniture design and full-scale fabrication, including Designed Objects students preparing for advanced studios such as Chair Studio and Advanced Furniture, as well as students from Sculpture, Fiber, Fashion, Architecture, and related disciplines. It is typically taken in the second year as a gateway to advanced furniture coursework and pairs well with CNC, with no prior furniture experience required.