[Sustainable Approach to Furniture Design]

by

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to take this chance for thanking my research facilitator, friends & family for support they provided & their belief in me as well as guidance they provided without which I would have never been able to do this research.

DECLARATION

I, (Your name), would like to declare that all contents included in this thesis/dissertation stand for my individual work without any aid, & this thesis/dissertation has not been submitted for any examination at academic as well as professional level previously. It is also representing my very own views & not essentially which are associated with university.

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Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION1

Rationale1

Aims and Objectives1

Underlying Issues and Research Questions2

Scope and Limitations2

Outline Methodology3

Project Structure/Overview3

CHAPTER 15

Furniture design5

History5

Types of Furniture6

Western History7

The Middle Ages7

The Renaissance8

Eclecticism8

CHAPTER 29

Wood9

The Transformation Process9

Types of Wood13

CHAPTER 315

Modern Furniture15

Asian History19

CHAPTER 420

From The History of Furniture Materials20

Environmental Impact of Metals21

Environmental impact of Plastic22

Modern Furniture22

CHAPTER 524

Recycling and Sustainability24

Design Principles24

Economic26

Social27

Ecological27

Furniture and Sustainable Development28

Repurposing Antique Furniture29

CONCLUSION29

REFERENCES30

INTRODUCTION

Rationale

As the global community continues to actively pursue sustainable methodology in carbon reduction and energy consumption, a variety of materials continues to avail themselves of designers at a rapidly increasing pace. Furniture, among every day human use and desire continue to change in designs, concepts and improvements which has a big impact on our lives. This is often seen as an obsession craved out of human desires and of great concern to our local environment. Sustainable approach to furniture design offers a vision of an evolving creative art and product design industry and through the application of an innovative approach, and the use of materials, many designers will remain at the forefront of the sustainable parade.

Aims and Objectives

This dissertation shows the results of an investigation carried out on sustainable approach to furniture design and the following objectives are considered:

1.To explore the nature of antique furniture, type of materials and general sustainable issues concerning furniture design.

2.To compare the 19th century furniture design with the 21st century furniture design

3.To determine the type of material used, manufacturing processes, sustainable approaches and environmental impact.

4.To consider re-purposing of antique furniture and incorporating it into a new design as a way of recycling material use.

5.In order to achieve the stated aims and objectives, this project is design to address the following questions:

6.What Sustainable Approach is in place for furniture design?

7.How has the 21st Century Furniture design affected the overall concept design?

8.How effective will the overall furniture design when antique design is incorporated into the new design through Recycling?

Underlying Issues and Research Questions

It can be argued that modern furniture design was introduced only to resolve the underlying issues on traditional design concept and that sustainable approach was later introduced to re-use old materials into a new product. The major problems with antique furniture design are the issue of insect problem and infestation. They are usually in the form of small holes in the wood. The insects are usually long gone. If a light amount of sawdust under the piece of furniture, it can strongly indicate that the insects are still ...