ASSEMBLY STUDIO

ThIn my piece, I wanted to create furniture designed to support a sitting position. The lens I chose was political and related to antagonistic architecture. For context, Robert Moses was one of the first to advance the development of hostile architecture. He designed the bridges crossing the parkways leading from New York City to Long Island specifically to discourage poor people from using the parkways. This contributed to many of the antagonistic traits of architecture we see today. The specific example I drew inspiration from was under-road spikes in Guangzhou, China. Covering nearly 200 square meters beneath the Huangshi highway, these concrete spikes prevent homeless people from using the bridge as shelter. In my piece, I originally wanted to focus on classism as it pertains to these structures. However, after further consideration, I decided it would be more effective to create a piece that exaggerated the tension between comfort and discomfort. accomplished this by creating a versatile sitting surface where one side presents a flat surface that is completely comfortable to sit on, while the other side is covered in 2×2 pyramids surfacing the sitting area, making it uncomfortable to sit on for more than 10 minutes—yet not completely unbearable.