Design for Dining: Iterating and Building in Three Dimensions

As we develop our Design for Dining table vignette, we’ve incorporated model making and quick prototyping into our iterative process. This has allowed us to investigate fabrication techniques, details, and spatial qualities of our design.

We started at a scale that considered the dining vignette relative to the restaurant and street front, investigating views and sightlines from the context.

The next step was to look at a larger scale, allowing details of the table frame and legs to be tested for scale, visibility and technique.

We built a full-scale mockup in our office using cardstock for the table top and wood for the large frames. This gave us a unique opportunity to test multiple shapes and sizes of table top and understand their relative qualities by having colleagues in the office sitting at and interacting with the design.

All these scales and investigations have led us to a point where we can begin fabrication of the final design with a full understanding of all of the construction details and methods for occupying the table.

The Design for Dining installation will be installed in mid-June at The Merchant restaurant at 60 Franklin St, Boston and we encourage people to try it out and let us know what they think through our blog or on social media using hashtag #DMBDining.