a. buchanan

Re[cycle]ed Bench Jenga Precedent Enclosure

Pathway Park

Flat Packed Bench

Deciduous

Shelving Unit

Seed and Blossom

This portfolio is a sampling of my work as an undergraduate at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. The projects within demonstrate my experience in space planning, furniture design, museum installation, parametric fabrication and 3-D modeling.

[Holism]

Burning Man Team Bench

bike rack

bench

mounted in groundRe cycle ed bench

abigail buchanan

designer

Re[cycle]ed bench is 1/2 bench and 1/2 bike rack. This design emerged from the challenge to design a custom piece of furniture for the new student run store that opened on UNCG’s campus Spring of 2012. This design utilizes reclaimed flat steel strips that are curved and secured into the ground. By having a dual purpose, this piece further supports the idea of sustainability by optimizing material usage and reducing the need for multiple pieces of furniture.

rendering in context[ ]

Jenga

abigail buchanan, corry mears, austin loman.

designers

In project Jenga, I joined forces with two others as we sought to create one cohesive unit based off of the conceptual words joint, groove, and glide. Gradually we built higher and higher, adding more units and components for multiple residents. The strong “C” shaped elements represent an element that was once joined and then gradually glided apart. “Grooved” out from the building are various paths of egress that release out into a multi level patio that wraps around the rear of the building. Incorporating nature was also important to our design as we created gathering spaces for residences to come together and enjoy the nature around them. We all had an equal voice in the design and then later divided into separate tasks. Renderings were produced by Corry Mears, technical drawings produced by Austin Loman, and model making was my main focus.

group diagram

front view of complex

garden/patio

rear atrium

photo credit: corry mears

PRECEDENT: BORDEAUx house

abigail buchanan, corry mears, raul garcia.

designers

The objective of this project was to study and build both a digital and physical model of the Bordeaux House by Rem Koolhaas. To the right is a rendering of the model I built within Rhino and rendered with Vray, Illustrator and Photoshop. Later, I collaborated with two other students as we created a physical model that demonstrated how the three layers of the building interacted with the surrounding landscape.

elevation depicting the function of each floor

photo credit: corry mears

photo credit: corry mears

01_

enclosure

abigail buchanan

designer

This project, Enclosure, was designed for a furniture competition headed up by the company, GroovyStuff. The objective was to create a piece of furniture that was comprised of reclaimed pieces of teak and iron that were salvaged by the company from Thailand. This particular table focuses on the use of rectilinear planes intersected by the curvature of reclaimed teak logs. Inspired by the natural beauty of the teak, this table cradles the branches further highlighting and showcasing the beauty of the wood. The contrasting dark frame encloses the wood, suspending the teak branches approximately 6” from the ground.

first ideation

ideation model

ideation model

top linear arrangement of logs

side steel support

iron enclosing logs

rendering[holism]

abigail buchanan

designer

This project focuses on designing tectonic space while producing minimal waste. Holism is a study that realizes and exploits the idea that any surface can be divided by its simplest geometry, a triangle. The triangles are joined to one another by a live hinge that allows the form to be compressed and expanded from a flat packed square into habitable space. Additionally, the pattern and live hinge allow for a modularity that can be added to, taken away from, or manipulated into other forms. Holism is an example of using digital fabrication to create a form that is aesthetically pleasing, without producing additional by products.

paper folding diagram

packing diagram

elevations/sections

[ ]

model

model unrolled

process diagrams

“pathway park”

descending slide

view from top of moundLarger than life

abigail buchanan, sharece ramos, dajana nedic, daniel salgado, weston willard, jeff linn, carlos smith, christine lumans, anna will, ashley dale, claudia aguilera

designers

Larger Than Life is an exhibit that is coming to Greensboro’s children’s museum, April of 2012. Larger Than Life “...offers visitors of the Greensboro children’s Museum an interactive experience, as children play and learn to navigate through a larger-than-life landscape. Children follow their natural sense of curiosity to discover their individual pathways, venturing through sky-high blades of musical grass, scaling mounds of stepped terrain, and sliding through an exaggerated exhibition of our natural world.”

grass diagram

rendering in context

8’

3’

1’

36’’30’’24”

18”12”

6”

18”

12”

6”

Final ScaleVertical Scale 1:3 Ratio

Rotate Unit “Breaking the Grid”

Split Whole

Introducing the Slide Component Locating the Flower Component

8’

3’

1’

36’’30’’24”

18”12”

6”

18”

12”

6”

Final ScaleVertical Scale 1:3 Ratio

Rotate Unit “Breaking the Grid”

Split Whole

Introducing the Slide Component Locating the Flower Component

process ideations

surface detail

frame detail

leg detailDeciduous

abigail buchanan

designer

Inspired by regional topography and the changes in elevation, I chose to explore how a material could be striped away at different levels to reveal and accentuate its natural form. This coffee table utilizes one piece of baltic birch plywood that is used for all pieces of the table. For different parts of the table, I focused on revealing and highlighting the different plies of the baltic birch. The stepped hexagons expose the horizontal layers, the frame of the table accentuates the natural plies, and the legs of the table are cut across the plies to reveal the wood at another level.

seed

alternate

step 1

step 2seed & blossom

abigail buchanan

designer

My objective was simply to create a new form out of the battered pages of a dust collecting book. With a few square pages and some wooden spheres, I decided to recreate the life cycle of a flower. First as a seed and then as a blossom.

step 3

Burning Man Team Bench

abigail buchanan, jillian northrup, jefferey mcgrew

designers

While interning at Because We Can, I was asked to create a flat packed bench prototype to be used at Burning Man by the Serpent Twins Crew. Inspired by the 1920s and Amelia Earhart, this wing backed bench was created from one piece of plywood and assembled with no additional pieces of hardware.

photo credit: jillian northrup

block model

initial slotting sketches

routing bits

initial wing sketches

prototypecnc engraving

back

legs slotted into back

assembly

underneath bench seat

prototype

prototypes

photo credit: jillian northrupphoto credit: jefferey mcgrew

photo credit: jefferey mcgrew

Flat PAcked Bench

abigail buchanan

designers

For this project I was given a solid mass and was asked to create a flat pack design to then fabricate on the cnc. It was imperative to create a sturdy model that could withstand its use at Burning Man, so I aided in modeling and building several prototypes that utilized different variations of the waffle flat pack design.

photo credit: jillian northrup

scale prototype

cnc cut file

prototype

cnc milling

aspire file

photo credit: jillian northrup

plywood cut sheet

flat pack pieces

Shelving unit

abigail buchanan

designers

This shelving unit was designed to encase the stereo system and shop tools at Because We Can. This cabinet was my first experience using Revit to design a furniture piece. After completing the Revit model, I exported the doors of the cabinet into Adobe Illustrator where I was more easily able to design the decorative motifs.

shelving unit

initial sketches

initial sketches

cnc router

initial sketches

polyurethane finishcnc profile cuts

joinery details

sound system

handle details

frameworkshelving unit

shelving details

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