Furniture
The Furniture Program focuses on the fertile intersection of the disciplines of furniture design, industrial design, sculpture, architecture, and fashion. The program emphasizes making skills (woodworking, metalworking, upholstery, and industrial fabrication), hand and computer-based drawing, and a theoretical investigation of furniture as both object and cultural agent.
Interdisciplinary Curriculum
Students will develop a conceptually sophisticated and professional body of work suitable for small-scale production runs or gallery exhibition. Students execute projects both individually and in small groups, often with Architecture, Industrial Design, and Interior Design students, which prepares them to collaborate with designers, manufacturers, and contractors in their professional lives.
Sponsored Studios
Many of the major teaching studios in the program are sponsored by retailers, manufacturers, or nonprofit organizations. Recently these sponsors have included Wilsonart International, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Council Design, Coalesse, Concreteworks, Design Within Reach, the California Academy of Sciences, Branchhome.org, Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, the FOR-SITE Foundation, and local retailers such as Propeller, Zinc Details, Friend, and the Magazine.
Lecture Series & Visiting Artists
The program hosts an ongoing lecture series and regularly brings visiting artists to campus. We had the pleasure of hosting such furniture and design professionals as Studio Gorm, Sylvie Rosenthal, Martino Zanota, Tanya Aguiniga, Michael Puryear, Gijs Bakker, Matthias Pliessnig, Allan Wexler, Walter Kitundu and Courtney Smith.
State-of-the-Art Facilities
On the San Francisco campus, the Wornick Wood and Furniture Studios include state-of-the-art facilities for woodworking, metal fabrication, and welding; rapid prototyping, CNC and laser cutting equipment (in a dedicated digital fabrication studio); a spray finishing booth; and upholstery equipment.
Questions?
Email furniture@cca.edu
Resources
Course-Specific Blogs
Russell Baldon: "CCA Furniture + Wilsonart"
Scott Constable, visiting Wornick professor (2010): "Micro-Expedition"
Russell Baldon: "Production Furniture"
