PROFESSOR

MICK KENNEDY

STUDIO

COOKING WITH PONTI: THE ARCHITECTURE OF OBJECTS

Through the design and fabrication of furniture and objects this studio explored ideas and constructed work equally relevant to larger and more integrated architectures that culminated in the collective installation of a suite of Stanze di Fantasia (Fantasy Rooms) which played host to a virtual Pranzo di Ferraprile (Mid April Lunch) at semester’s end. Students cooked and provided lunchboxes for a senior center in Ypsilanti and hosted an online discussion of their work with the elders.

Working in collaborative teams the studio revisited the joint work of Italian architect, designer Gio Ponti and the artist Piero Fornasetti at the Casa Lucano, popularly known as La Casa di Fantasia.

Acrobatic Experiment Between Surfaces and Volumes: Each collaborative was asked to design and fabricate: a table, a cabinet, a standing screen. Additionally, each student designed and made seating, a vase for flowers and a dish for our pranzo guests.

The studio was also very concerned with the drawings that take place between design and fabrication: The translations from drawing to building.

The design of each object engaged a different set of material and fabrication processes and the integration of a range of levels of craft in regards to larger questions of surfaces, joints, tectonics, proportions, form and space. And equally important: their use both singularly and in combination.

︎︎︎BACK ︎

MARÍA ARQUERO DE ALARCÓN + ANA PAULA PIMENTEL WALKER**

Volume 01 + 02

CRAIG BORUM

Chen Huang

Yunyan Li

EL HADI JAZAIRY**

Judith Mendoza, Rosa Manzo, Tessa Broek

Renwei Liu,
Lu Li

MICK KENNEDY

Chun-Li Julie Chen

Ellis Wills-Begley

JEN MAIGRET

Nicolai Carlson, Megan Clevenger, Song Gao

Yuyan Wang, Xiangqi Wen, Haoyu Zhou

ROY STRICKLAND**

Kael Fineout

Victoria Wong

GEOFFREY THÜN**

Marco Nieto, Kady Cramer

Ian Eichensehr,
Jonathan Levitske,
John Lozinak

KATHY VELIKOV**

Gina Laudato,
Jasmine Wright

Fernando Rosas, Madison Wong

STUDENT WORK

CHUN-LI JULIE CHEN

“STANZE DI FANTASIA- ARCHITECTURE
OF OBJECTS”

How design and fabrication of objects can serve or clarify ideas under larger and more integrated architectural design? Drawings that take place between ideas and the building process is highly concerned in the fabrication practices of the three types of objects I produced: Standing Screen Pairs with Spinning Heads, Flate Vase with A Slim Leg, and The Puffy Stool. The relational thinking in architectural questions surfaces, joints, tectonics, form, and space, to create a space of framing, layering, and depth. Each piece of furniture in the space will retain its unique features by the ideas of proportion, detail, and surface to create a cohesive aesthetic.