REUSING RESIDUAL MATERIAL OF FURNITURE PRODUCTION IN DESIGN ARTIFACTS BY UNIVERSITY-INDUSTRY COLLABORATION

Abstract

Furniture design classes in interior design programs mostly lack on production knowledge. Although the knowledge in this area is provided theoretically, tactile knowledge cannot be transferred neither oral nor verbally. At the other hand, furniture industry is the place where this kind of knowledge is utilized continuously. In the global World, the industry must catch up with new trends that are part of the endeavors in design in Universities. Problems due to the nature of industry and design problems of students and teachers meet at furniture itself but industry and University are still not close enough. In this paper, possible collaborations between industry and University are discussed. The furniture design class which is held in an interior design department is organized at the scope of industry-university collaboration. In this sense, the director of a mid-sized furniture firm is invited as a tutor for one semester. The subject of the class is determined as a typical problem from industry, reuse of residual materials of production. These materials are converted into design artifacts. The output of this study is discussed in this paper. This discussion includes evaluation of the collaboration through qualitative and quantitative data of student reports, surveys, and partner interpretations.