Tulane A-Week

In 2009, the Tulane University School of Architecture invited el dorado to participate in a celebration of design called “Architects Week.” Typically the week includes a lecture from the invited firm and a weeklong design-build competition, concluding with a battle royal-style final jury and the subsequent drinking of sanctioned beverages at the annual Beaux Arts Ball. This year’s competition was for a campus bench, and over eighty students participated in the creation of eight surprisingly diverse solutions.

After a rare “all-partner” lecture on Monday night, Dan and Jamie stuck around the whole week, inspiring the students with handy fabrication tips and authentic sports metaphors. The range of solutions, which explored many types of materials and construction techniques, was humbling and inspiring-from a Dada-esque bouncing box of grass to an oddly comfortable and delicate mass of saws-alled 4×4′s. (Also included: a curiously strong fiberglass taffy-lounge; a delicate wood construction with an integral water-jetted steel frame; a hypnotically comfortable rope hammock-bench called “the Slacker;” a carefully crafted Baltic birch double-seater nicknamed “the Crotch Rocket” by the eldos; and one modestly entitled “Just a Bench,” even though it was a lot cooler than most benches.)

The Medal d’Or went to Group #2, led by an Irishman with a faint brogue and his band of merry pranksters. Their solution, though simple in form, would seem to be a perfect choice for campus-based lounging-it’s kind of like a blue-collar futon frame that went to college and got all fancy.