Furniture industry trends

Furniture design is a field with many opportunities for the application of the parametric approach. Considering the current trends in the furniture industry, majority of them are related to the design methodology and could be impacted by the use of algorithms.

Having better control over the design process through the use of algorithms helps application of the current trends. Considering the additive manufacturing and robotics/automation in production, those are the processes that require specialized files in order to be performed. Usually the process of preparation of the production files for the machines is manual and long, so it slows down the design process. However, the output could be automatized with the use of design algorithms, so the design to production step could be instantaneous. Sustainability in the furniture depends on the production technology and also materials used. Intelligent ways to utilize both of them to get more sustainable products could be a long experimental process. However, through the better virtual control of the informed models, the testing and feedback could be much faster. Algorithms can incorporate the data about the material and the production into the model, so the designers can understand better how to use them to their own advantage. Modularity and multifunctionality are the also two new trends that can be easily automated with algorithms. They bring defining and re-defining the module size while keeping the general configuration and relations between the elements.

How Go Parametric helps?

The usual furniture design process requires different consecutive steps that go from initial idea to the final design. These steps are connected to each other in chronological order and do not allow any feedback or a new info to impact the previous steps. Which means that in case of any unpredictable occurrences, the whole process has to be restarted, often from the very beginning. As a consequence, this leads designers to choose well known paths and decreases their possibility and openness to experimenting.

Use of the algorithms allows creation of a cyclical interconnected process where the feedback and updates of the design move front and back without interrupting the process. Once this procedure is set up, the design explorations and advancement are circling flawlessly. The final design emerges from this process also automatically.

Opportunity for using parametric design in furniture industry

Other than theoretical approach to the design process, the practical application is presented in the video above. The example shows how the limited number of control points can lead to the numerous iterations for creation of a parametric bench. Other inputs, such as the distance between the elements, rib height and thickness are controlled by the numerical inputs and also easily changeable.

How can Go Parametric help to the furniture industry?

• Leading early stage design decisions by including all material and technology requirements from the start through algorithms
• Enabling countless iterations of the during the design process
• Providing more precise early estimates
• Providing instant generation of production files coming from 3D model

Go Parametric furniture examples

Marble coffee table

Wooden waffle wall

Various examples of the parametric furniture from the market