The idea of ‘The Principles’ has been created as an evolution of ‘the guide book,’ initially conceived in a previous research proposal produced by myself in 2016; and since has been refined and updated from my ongoing lived experience as a craftsperson and a designer over the past decade.

“As the practical experimentation took place, it was clear that this research needed to be recorded and documented and easily accessible. This meant that other pieces of rentable furniture could be created by external sources with all the necessary criteria met. Furthermore artists who have work already made can use this research as a checklist to see if their works are appropriate to lease out. It was decided that an easy to follow ‘Design Guideline’ was to be created, which could be used as an educational tool to aid in designing and building rentable furniture.” (Soeffky 2016b)

Throughout this semester it has become increasingly clear that the best way to showcase such a guidebook, as ‘easily accessible’ as possible, is to make it viewable online.  Publishing a website, with a downloadable pdf. for offline viewing, and broadcasting on social media means that everyone with access to a computer or mobile phone can find and use the guidebook as they want. 

How did the guidelines originate back in 2016?  Working as a furniture maker and learning about furniture waste and the ecological problems of waste in general (ABS 2013) I undertook a project ‘Exploring furniture suited towards a rental audience on a domestic scale.’ (Soeffky 2016a) This Project report can be found in The Principles section of this website. I directed my research into creating a system that would ideally help with the problem of ‘fast furniture’. (Jackson 2022)

By the end of the project I had reached a relatively successful and tangible outcome; The final finished piece of furniture was a television console and storage unit, exhibited in ‘Homeland: returning, remembering, reimagining’ (Cys & Lawrence 2016). However the more relevant outcome in the case of this writing, was this initial study in identifying and implementing key sustainable design principles to help shape the overall result of a furniture piece. The outcome was a success, which sparked the evolution to this website. 

Upon further research into sustainable design principles I have reached a more hypothetical conclusion that the original ideas of designing for a rental audience only really cover some sustainable principles. Those principles are designing good quality durable furniture that should last physically for many years, with repairability and restorability in mind. My new research has brought forward other ideas of designing with emotional durability (Chapman 2015) and creating a narrative or personal connection (Norman 2003) that goes alongside the furniture's sturdy construction. This enables a piece of furniture to last both in the physical and mental. Creating ‘value beyond monetary cost’ (Lacey 2009.) 

Here the original ideas of creating a guidebook for designing furniture for rental have metamorphosed into new thinking with a more generalised approach. Designing with narrative and in-depth decision making in addition to the original ideas, and bringing it all together on a vastly accessible platform.