Materials

At what point do we create new things entirely because of new materials? As Rand observed in the opening of the Fountainhead we have a tendency to continue to create similar or traditional shapes required by older material types despite using new and different materials. Modern furniture is largely made up of various fiber type and ply type “woods” produced in large quantities, all of which mimic older styles of furniture or proverbial modern forms while still regurgitating the same old ideas due to the limiter of function. While these new materials are a wonder of modern ingenuity and reuse materials previous thought of as waste (e.g. wood dust or chips) they try and mimic the older medium of solid wood to their detriment. Such things as plywoods are amazingly stable and provide greater strength in some circumstances and pressed board also has merits as well, I think we need to reimagine their current uses in some circumstances. It used to be that furniture was made to last and was passed down to the next generation, however current furniture is made to last only five to ten years. This is a combination of intent as well as the limitations of such modern materials. In trying to highly mimic traditional pieces that are made of solid wood many such pieces are inherently flawed from working from that premise in the first place. Should not fiberboard pieces of furniture be formed in line with the properties of fiberboard and thus for instance have more rounded edges in order to fend off chipping or the collapsing of said edges due to a blow for example? I believe we can take these pressed boards and create shapes and functions not seen before if are willing to step out of the box and allow tradition to remain as tradition and not try to mimic it but move forward. There will always be a market for old thing and old ways for the inherent nostalgia resides in us all.