Expert Craftsmen: Observing a furniture design workshop

The final place I had the opportunity to visit and observe is a local furniture design house - and ironically (but helpfully) the building used by a friend in my year. Although I did not physically interview the craftsmen, I had the rare chance to walk through their workshop and observe their operations and processes. After sneezing like 1000 times (because allergies because sawdust) I found the workshop to be an organised array of chaotic organisation, storage and building. The machinery used, steps followed and space needed is all very important to my space planning and it was thus a great opportunity to walk through the space.

The one thing I can say for certain is that a workshop - no matter what its used for - is messy, chaotic, yet perfectly sorted and made sense of in the designer's eyes. At the end of the day, if the space is not adaptable for their specific and individual design and production needs, the overall success of the business will be compromised. These interviews and observations were crucial in the workings of my design - and organisation of my brain.