{"id":6507,"date":"2013-03-06T15:46:30","date_gmt":"2013-03-06T21:46:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/?p=6507"},"modified":"2015-11-12T08:01:42","modified_gmt":"2015-11-12T14:01:42","slug":"students-in-the-catbird-seat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/students-in-the-catbird-seat\/","title":{"rendered":"Students in the catbird seat"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_6508\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6508\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2013\/03\/Chairs_j-2kic21a.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6508\" title=\"Chairs_j\" src=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2013\/03\/Chairs_j-2kic21a.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"389\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2013\/03\/Chairs_j-2kic21a.jpg 600w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2013\/03\/Chairs_j-2kic21a-300x195.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6508\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Aubree Park (from left), Andrew Cesarz and Ben Gilling have all taken first place in a chair-design competition that occurs annually at the School of Architecture and Urban Planning. First place winners get their ideas made full-scale. (<em>Photo by Troye Fox<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Andrew Cesarz was inspired by a discarded banana peel. Aubree Park was thinking about a plant emerging from its seed.<\/p>\n<p>Both UWM students are describing the ideas behind the chairs they designed in the popular freshman course taught by Architecture Professor Mark Keane.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s almost like a foreign language,\u201d says Keane about design. \u201cIt comes to some people more readily than others.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Open to freshmen of any major, the course is offered yearly by the School of Architecture and Urban Planning (SARUP), and introduces students to design form and function, culminating in the creation of some 300 model chairs.<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding: 5px;width: 325px;float: right\">\n<div style=\"text-align: right;font-style: italic\"><span class=\"uwm_caption\">Video by \u00a0Brian Schmidlin<\/span><\/div>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ql_JeeXU5Rc\" width=\"325\" height=\"183\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<span class=\"uwm_caption\"><em>Mark Keane and his students discuss creating chairs in Keane&#8217;s freshman design course. <a href=\"http:\/\/youtu.be\/ql_JeeXU5Rc\">View full size on YouTube.<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>But the project doesn\u2019t end with the grades. The models are displayed throughout the SARUP building where students and staff vote for their favorite.<\/p>\n<p>The top choice is then constructed at full scale by Nemschoff, a Sheboygan-based furniture manufacturer that is a division of HermanMiller Healthcare. This year, the company will construct the 12<sup>th<\/sup> chair from the competition.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere were a lot more curves, a lot more challenges in this piece than I ever imagined,\u201d says Ben Gilling, whose armchair-recliner with graceful arches won the most recent competition. \u201cI was a little bit inspired by human form and dancers, just the way that they can bend.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cesarz, whose design won last year, especially liked the irony of the shape he used for his chair \u2013 \u201cthat iconic banana peel that you\u2019d see in a cartoon.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought, \u2018what a novel idea,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cWith the banana form, instead of making somebody fall down, they could actually sit on it and it would support them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Making the real thing<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Working with students offers Nemschoff designers the opportunity to tap into the collective creativity, says Scott Reynolds, Nemschoff vice president of product development.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have learned things from each of the students. Various elements from their chairs in some way have always made it into our products since things are always learned when taking a design concept and turning it into a real product.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Working with an actual chair company to turn her model into reality was hands-down the most exciting part of the competition, says Park, now a senior in architecture, whose \u2018leaf\u2019 rocker won in 2010.<\/p>\n<p>After visiting the company plant while her prototype was being made, Park says she learned that design isn\u2019t all about looks. \u201cIt was built exactly how it was in my model with the same dimensions and everything. Then I got to sit in it and see what was wrong \u2013 what kind of design mistakes I made.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Reynolds counts Park\u2019s concept among his favorites of the chairs constructed over the years.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Industry connection<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>All of the winning models have been worthy of construction, says SARUP Dean Bob Greenstreet.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Nemschoff partnership is a wonderful, enduring relationship between UWM and an important Wisconsin corporation,\u201d he says. \u201cThis opportunity provides an invaluable experience for our students and connects them to the professional world in a very powerful way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Though many who take the course are pre-architecture majors it has attracted a variety of other majors too, from Russian literature to chemistry. A few have even switched their majors to architecture after the experience, says Keane.<\/p>\n<p>Current champ Gilling is still undecided about his major, but enrolled in the class to explore architecture. He is looking forward to seeing the end product.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI feel great. I want to be able to sit on it,\u201d he says. \u201cThe second I finished this thing I thought it looked very comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Students in a popular freshman course taught by Architecture Professor Mark Keane have a chance to see the chairs they design become reality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":836,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[174],"tags":[],"section":[127,129],"display_categories":[],"related-coverage":[],"uwmnews-feed":[],"class_list":["post-6507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","section-arts-humanities","section-film-fine-arts"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.2 (Yoast SEO v27.2) - 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