Final Show I

From the beginning of Unit 3 until graduation, only a few weeks remain, and we are entering the most crucial stage of our course—the Final Show. However, things have become more challenging for me after an unsuccessful WIP Show.

To align more closely with my research focus, I decided long ago to create a piece of furniture for the final show, and I’m quite certain its form will be a shelf. The shelf form is similar to architecture, as both involve stable supports, multiple layers, and are relatively large in scale compared to other furniture forms. I believe it would serve as an ideal vehicle for brutalist elements.

When thinking about the shelf, the first things that came to mind were the Nuage Bookcase and Unité d'Habitation, designed by Charlotte Perriand and Le Corbusier—two iconic figures in the modernist and brutalist movements. Their work has influenced my research from the very beginning, so my first step in the design process was to reference their pieces.

I began by sketching, not only referencing the works of Perriand and Le Corbusier, but also drawing inspiration from other brutalist landmarks like Trellick Tower. However, I soon realized that simply mimicking their forms was not ideal, as it contradicted my goal of designing for a contemporary context. These initial designs looked too much like modernist furniture from the 1970s.

Reflecting on my research for the Memorial Garden project, I discovered that the monuments from former Yugoslavia, known as Spomenik in Serbo-Croatian, perfectly align with my idea. These monuments have abstract forms that differ from typical brutalist structures. In fact, they appear futuristic—an element I want to reflect in my design. By incorporating this inspiration, I hope to connect brutalist utopian ideas of the past with the contemporary environment. However, a new challenge arose: how to present this concept effectively to the audience.

Bogdan Bogdanović, Monument to Fallen Miners, 1973