rebar meets woodFinding and combining resources of two Icelandic companies

Lauri Virkkunen

contents

partner companiesStjrnublikk

3D verk

MentorsGarar Eyjlfsson

Tinna Gunnarsdottir

Snfr orsteins

Iceland Academy of the Arts

Product Design

2013

Brief and the companies

design process

results

This booklet is made to exhibit my design process during the Local Production course at the Iceland Academy of the Arts in the spring 2013.

The goal of the course was to work with two local Icelandic companies, finding and combining their resources like materials, machines, techniques and know-how. The brief was open to innovate and design a new technique, tool, object, product or an application based on both companies possibilities and facilities. The main focus was in different materials and techniques - combining them together.

The teacher decided the companies for each student. First I spent time at Stjrnublikk studying and researching its working processes and used materials. Then I got to know 3D Verks possibilities. Both of the companies seemed to work with solid and pretty inflexible and stiff materials like metal sheets and bars as well as styrofoam, wooden and hard plastic sheets.

First I found it somewhat difficult to combine these pretty alike materials together. I have a packaging design students background which means I am experienced with bending and folding materials. Looking at the process now, I saw it affect my decision on basing my working process on bending.

brief

A Modern Craftsman?

One topic of the course was modern craftsmanship. Think global, act local. Many contemporary designers have aimed to also produce things mostly by themselves, not just design them. This requires much more craftsmanship skills of the designer. Max Lamb is one good example. You can have your own opinion of the guy in the picture.

Welding, seaming and bending are the basic techniques for stjrnublikk.

Stjrnublikk was founded in 1990 and since then the company has expanded steadily. Stjrnublikk undertakes all general tinsmithing. A large part of the companys various constructions is for house building contractors. Manufacturing is mainly focused on sheet metal materials.

Stjrnublikk has specialised in the fabrication of various claddings for roofs and sidings, for example corrugated steel, which has been very common material also in covering facades in Iceland. Stjrnublikk has specialised also in reinforcing stirrups and bars for concrete.

Stjrnublikk uses different metal materials like steel, aluminium, zinc and copper. There is a wide range of different techniques the company uses in production like bending, corrugating, cutting, welding, melting, seaming and fixing.

Firstly, working at Stjrnublikk I learned the basics of welding and bending metal materials. I was surprised how much of the work is still craftsmanship and personal skills, not just the understanding of the machines. Stjrnublikk has several different machines, e.g. a MEP bending machine, a plasma cutting machine, a metal bending machine and metal corrugating machines.

Stjrnublikk

Above: Stjrnublikks plasma cutting machine.Beneath: Two types of metal corrugating machines.

This one-man company is focused on manufacturing the designed objects of various solid materials such as foam, wood, plastic, plaster and aluminium.

3D Verk offers a possibility to make tactile miniature models and mock-ups of EPS (expanded polystyrene foam) before the design will be put in production. Nowadays EPS is also used in furniture like desks, sculptures, theater setups and merchandising objects. EPS is a soft, light but still big size solid material. 3D verk has a CNC hot wire foam cutting machine to work with EPS. The other machine in use is a carving machine for sheet materials up to 9 mm thickness.

3d verk

3D Verk uses carving machine with different sheet materials like wood and plexi.

Above: The CNC hot wire foam cutting machine and objects made cutted with it. Below: The carving machine.

during the course I noticed i have a tendancy to always think carefully before experimenting. As a designer I should also learn to think through experimentation.

It took me a while to figure out how I am going to mix companies together. Finally, I found out the most fascinating material for me: reinforcing steel bar (rebar). This was the starting point of my design process. Rebar is commonly used as a tensioning device in reinforced concrete and reinforced masonry structures holding the concrete in compression. So usually rebar is hidden in concrete. I like its tacky and catchy texture and rough honesty. I wanted rebar to be seen in my design.

My aim was to use rebar with another material so that the materials need each other to constitute an object and no other materials are needed. I also wanted to

keep the production process quite simple and quick. I wanted a contrast to rebars industrial and constructional image. Wood carving is traditional craft, especially in Iceland. I thought that bending an industrial and cold material would work well together with carving warm and natural material. So I started to think about the ways to put these materials together.

Design Process

I thought about different joints to connect rebar and wooden materials. I found carved tracks to fit with rebar as well as the paper clip technique.

I had an idea about a table or a stool based on three rebar legs. I made miniature prototypes of iron wire, cardboard and wooden sticks.

Stjrnublikks rebar bending machine is just for 2D bending. The rest of the work was made by this smaller and not so accurate bending machine. though Nowadays there are also 3D rebar Bending machines on the market.

Left: The MEP bending machineBeneath: A welding point in a chair leg.

Above: The chair legs.Left: We had to adjust the bendings by warming them up.Beneath: The miniature model of the chairI made of iron wire and carboard.

Left: One carved track and the table top to be sanded.

Right: Putting the carving drill on.Beneath: The carving machine in action.

During the process, I found two simple ways to connect wooden sheets and rebar together by using the bending and carving machines. One way is to carve tracks in the wood for the rebar. Basically the parts are then together because of the gravity. Another option, which I used with the self-application, is to drill holes for the rebar. Thirdly, there is the paper clip technique.

At the end of the course, I designed and fabricated 3 prototypes of furniture using these techniques. I can say that I reached one of my goals: any of these objects doesnt need other materials, screws, glue etc. You can put them together or storage and transport

as parts. The production process is not complicated or long and modular shapes can be used in many applications.

I was ambitious to take the chance to make a chair without any previous experience. Regardless, the first prototype was surprisingly comfortable and stable.

results