Spring 2015, UC Berkeley | Construction and Materials | Instructor: Lisa Iwamoto
Collaborators: Matt Au, Yuxu Han, Sabrina Shen | Special thanks to Baxter Smith and Phirak Suon
The multi-purpose Pin Shelf is a design-build installation for a technology company's new headquarters in San Francisco.
Design
Our group of graduate students chose the space under a 16" wide diagonal bracing as the site. This structural element separates the open office area and the hallway but is potentially dangerous as part of it has a head clearance lower than 80". Instead of installing fixed barriers or guardrails, we see it as an opportunity to design something beautiful and functional.
We hoped to create a design that promotes interaction between users. The top of the shelf is at bar table height, which allows users to use it as a counter for informal gatherings. Other than just following the angle of the bracing, a step is designed to hold books and magazines. The shelf part is facing the office side; users can customize their shelf configurations easily to hold a large variety of objects. On the hallway side is a panel that tells a little story of the company. The San Francisco map is engraved on the panel, and the hole sizes come from a mapping of user data from the company.
Lights are installed inside the shelf. When people from the office side pushed a pin in, the end cap will block the hole. People walking by on hallway could see how the users on the office side have configured the shelf.
Data map on the outer panel
Build
The Pin Shelf is built by the students in the school's fabrication shop. To keep everything within budget, every component is made by the students from sourcing to finishing. The dowels and top panels are cut and shaped on the table saw and finished with multiple layers of protective coating, metal caps and sleeves are cut on the metal band saw and finished with the lathe, large panels are carefully planed and fabricated on the CNC machine, and top panels are put together with matching wood grain. Because the size of the design exceeds the standard size of wood panels, the pieces are designed and cut strategically and later joint together with biscuits. The Pin Shelf took around half a semester to finish from manufacturing the individual components to completely assembled.
Making of...
