Lumber is bought from a local company and furniture is constructed in the garage (shown).

This desk, built for Grace, was requested by other clients who admired it’s sleek and practical design.

Demo. Demo Forever: Daniel Kanter’s post on renovating his house is spot-on for anyone stuck in the middle of renovating. Example “One of the side effects of renovating an old house, I’ve found, is the way my brain has come to toggle between the absurd optimism I feel before a project begins and the extreme despair I experience when my ideas about how things will be collide with the reality of how things actually are.” From Manhattan Nest.

The Norwegian government retained Designit to help it streamline its immigration process in conjunction with the creation of a new agency, the Utlendingsdirektoratet or Norwegian Directorate of Immigration. The idea was to cut processing times by better managing data across multiple agencies, lightening the burden on the government while improving the "user experience" for would-be immigrants. Image courtesy of Designit.

"You sketch a concept, model it, but to see it actually take shape is always surprising." Givone says. "Building this specific structure, that payoff was more dramatic. It looked just as I had imagined and rendered it, by hand in Play-Doh, all those months before."

Behrokh Khoshnevis, an engineering professor at USC, reveals his Contour Crafting fabrication process system, by which buildings, including plumbing and electrical utilities, can be built using what is in essence a large-scale 3D printer. Khoshnevis presented a scenario in which a 2,000-square-foot house could be completely framed in 20 hours, with lower construction costs than in conventional building methods.

"I pick the different elements for every build based on a few factors," says Evey. "One primary factor is color. Industrial parts are made in great colors like safety orange, dull gray, and high-visibility green, to name a few. The coloring of home product is typically very quiet, so I wanted to build lamps that went against that convention and made a statement."

"The design process starts by considering the amount of illumination needed, as well as the amount of physical space available. From there it’s a process of gathering components and materials," says Evey. "Next I experiment with composition and finishes until I have something both functional and formally intriguing. Then it is lovingly packaged and shipped off. Every Lighht is unique, so the process really changes from piece to piece."

At the powder coating facility, the legs are hung on a conveyor belt that takes them through a powder booth. Then they go into an oven to cure the paint.

"I started this project out of a desire to redefine the conventional aesthetics surrounding home objects. I wanted to challenge notions of both elegance and usability, and Lighht became a place for me to experiment with those ideas," Evey says. "Of course none of this takes place in a vacuum, I think of this work as sitting in dialog with more historical figures like Andrea Branzi, as well as contemporary designers like Martino Gamper and Brendan Timmins."

"From a formal perspective, I was seeing a lot of digital collage work created in a 'Home Depot aesthetic,' and I was curious what would happen when those visual gestures were re-crystallized and the digital made real once again," says Evey. "I’m interested in the cycles of creative culture relating to the Internet, and I think we’ve only begun to see the depth of influence digitally birthed aesthetics will have on the 'real' world."

One of the final steps is to install the H-Brace and feet, both fabricated on another mold.

A technician in a ventilator mask who sprays the wood with a transparent stain or varnish.

Any wood waste generated in Ligne Roset’s manufacturing process is used to heat the company’s factories in the winter. Leather scraps are sold to make boots and wallets.

Stacks of foam await their fates.

When an order comes in, workers feed the wood into a high-tech preprogrammed machine that mills it into ten square-sided posts and drills holes where the pieces will connect.

Pia Wüstenberg, a German-Finnish designer based in London, created the Stacked Vessels we featured in the magazine, each made from ceramic, glass, and wood. Another project of hers we love is Processed Paper—a series of pendant lamps, table bases, and other pieces crafted from rolled wastepaper that she turns on a woodworker's lathe to create distinctive, marbleized pieces.

A pioneer in universal design, Pratt industrial design alumnus Marc Harrison "relied on hand-motion studies to redesign the Cuisinart food processor to meet the needs of consumers with disabilities." Other Pratt graduates, like Paul Mulhauser who worked on the OXO Good Grips line, have also ventured into the growing field of universal design.

Photo courtesy Kohler Company.

The tedious process of priming, painting, and clear coating.

The process of scoring and folding the aluminum composite material that SITU Studio used to create the exhibition, "Making it in NYC," at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Photo by SITU Studio.

A worker smoothes any imperfections before manually installing the H-brace.

The physically taxing job of assembling the final product is most frequently handled by men in the factory, but Laurence is a nimble, notable exception. After assembling the sofa and fluffing the cover she readies it for shipping and boxes it up.

The result is a “frozen lava texture, which contrasts with the inside of the bowl that we polish to an almost mirror finish,” says Arbel. “This is the first series of objects that has very little function. Mostly they exist for some sort of emotional response.”

A worker operates the float-sink tank. Heavier, nonrecyclable materials sink to the bottom, leaving on the water's surface only rPET, which then becomes white rinse flake.

In the mususem's new iteration, a Process Lab will allow visitors to brainstorm design solutions through hands-on activities.

Sewers stitch zippers on to the cover’s edges to enable it to attach securely to the wooden sofa frame.

Then the pieces get stretched, quilted, and joined by a cavalcade of sewers, each with their own discrete task.

A seamstress mans the automated Gerber Cutter, which cuts patterns precisely and in a way that minimizes wasted fabric.

For example, a designer specifies a certain stitch pattern. A sewer then creates the same pattern by hand giving feedback on reproducability. If it's too complex, he or she will offer feedback to the designer; the designer then takes another stab at the stitch's look. The back and forth happens until the detail is refined and meets the aesthetic standards and manufacturing capabilities at GM.

The craftsman pours water over the boards to halt the charring process.

Hypetex Halo Chair Utilizing a new carbon fiber process developed over several years by Formula 1 engineers, the Hypetex Halo chair by Michael Sodeau cuts an aerodynamic profile. Premiering at designjunction at the London Design Festival this year, these lounge chairs hint at the potential of such a flexible material.

A collage of images showing the site and scenes from the design and site preparation process.

The couple’s three children were involved in the renovation process and particularly enjoyed the demolition process.

To begin the charring process, the newspaper that has been packed between the boards is set on fire.

Concrete left over from the dipping process is reused to make jewelry. Photo by Jordan Duvall.