The sum of a lot of parts...

Starting with 230 board feet of mahogany, we produced 40 legs, 20 armrest, 16 circle laminations averaging 7 feet in diameter.  We cut 720 Domino mortices and 200 people hours into the project we are ready for assembly.

Bend it like Baudrillard...

Lots of cutting of  1/4" x 1" x 120" mahogany strips to stack laminate the curved seat. 427 strips to be exact. Student fingers turned  black but never bloody. The black happens when the acids from ones hands react with the tannins in the wood

Check your head with your drawing

We are continuously checking the original layout versus the full scale mock-up versus common sense. So far the "tools of ignorance" have worked in our favor. 

Break it down...

Breaking down material  =  lots of little piles of wood.

Student members of the MIT Hobby shop volunteer through out the 08' Summer to work on the Intellectuals Circle. Many of them are new to woodworking and are eager to learn a new skill and the process involved in designing and building a piece of furniture for the public.

If you build it...

Mid May, 2008

With a generous grant from the MIT Council for the Arts, a helpful discount from local lumber sellers Anderson and McQuaid, along with the help of Mike Servant at Festool, work on the Intellectuals Circle begins.