Study Architecture 
ProPEL 
Author(s): Paul Pettigrew
700 years ago, to experience international design, you might commit 24 years to travel, Today, Marco Polo’s ship & camel have been replaced by UPS & Lulu.com. Design can be simultaneously local and international. Local can include: research, design, material sourcing, labor, fabrication and distribution. International is a network of retail outlets or the ultimate international distributor, the internet.Today, a one-person architectural office can be simultaneously regional, national & international. Architectural design can be as much a process as a product. Sitting alone in my office I can coordinate, via telephone, Skype, e-mail & website, between material source, fabricator, packager, distributor and customer. I have been designing and fabricating architecturally specific furniture for over 20 years. Custom furniture and architecture incorporating my furniture can be found in businesses and residences throughout my regional area, a few locations nationally and thanks to online shopping, abroad.Since Spring 2006 I have shared my interest in architecturally specific furniture design and fabrication with architecture students enrolled in my Architecture & Furniture course. Architecture & Furniture offers students the opportunity to experience the traditional sequence of master plan, schematic design, design development, construction drawings, fabrication, installation and use in a single semester. This semester’s student work is currently for sale to customers around the world on Etsy.com.Recent academic & professional research into uses of “urban wood” led to a project for Crate & Barrel. My Living Tree project recycled urban wood into functionally beautiful objects without felling a single tree. The Living Tree project explored modern design with an emphasis on process. Using only urban trees harvested seasonally due to the effects of wind, damage and age, Living Tree tables not only reduced the demand on our nation’s forests, they were sourced, fabricated, packaged & distributed within a single metropolitan area minimizing the carbon footprint between tree source, mill and production.Tables were sold to customers via Crate & Barrel’s CB2 stores, catalog & website. 500 tables sold in less than a month’s time. 500 tables traveled to nearly 500 homes & businesses around the world. CB2’s website & blog provided a forum where tables could be discussed & debated by customer’s, future customers and admirers from around the globe.In the time typically spent on a single residential addition or remodel, a royalty that equaled or exceeded the normal architect’s fee was generated. More importantly, I was able to present my ideas and work to a larger and more diverse audience.It is easy to allow one’s work as an architect to be influenced by regions both national and international. More difficult is our ability as architects to present our regionally inspired work to a national or international audience. Most difficult is our ability to communicate the ideas behind our work to an audience outside our profession. By expanding the definition of the Architectural practice to include projects of all scales, Architects expand the potential impact and audience aware of who they are, what they are doing and why.
Volume Editors
Ikhlas Sabouni & Jorge Vanegas
