Home: MCAD Meets Room & Board

As (the prospect of!) warm weather has us scanning stores for outdoor furniture, it's exciting to learn that two cutting edge works by MCAD Furniture Design students might soon be produced and sold by Room & Board. Student designers, challenged in a competition sponsored by the retailer, came up with prototypes for outdoor seating that could be produced domestically from environmentally friendly materials.

One of the winning entries was "Bask," a chair designed by senior Matt Borchert. It's made of welded steel and rope. The idea, he says, came from a combination of his love for strong, almost typographic lines and materials that fit in with the outdoor environment.

"Seymour," the second winning entry, is a chair and ottoman designed by junior Mac Plumstead. Starting with the concept of an Adirondack chair, Plumstead came up with the cool design of cut, folded metal over a welded steel frame.

The competition, now in its sixth year, usually recognizes one design, so this year's winning pair is a first. Room & Board's vendor resource manager, Steve Freeman, actually considers the 2008 proposals the best yet. And although it's not yet known whether the retailer will produce and sell the designs, there is history of doing so: "Stow," a media console designed in 2005 by MCAD student Maxwell Kelsey, is part of Room & Board's current furniture line.