Considerations of ecology, economy, and aesthetics enter into this approach to furniture design that has been inspired by Plato’s dialogue Meno.   In the Meno, Plato addresses the question “what is virtue?” A secondary theme in the dialogue is the nature of learning. Socrates states his belief that all knowledge resides within each person (a concept which parallels Jung’s “collective unconscious”), and that the role of the teacher is to guide the pupil in discovering that which is already within the self. To demonstrate the point, Socrates, through appropriate questioning, causes an illiterate slave to prove a geometrical theorem: that the square whose area is double the area of a given square has a side whose length is equal to the diagonal of the initial square.

The diagram of a square rotated within a square described in the Meno has served as inspiration and as point of departure for several furniture designs that employ plywood as the main material.

These objects are prototypes designed for mass production. The guiding design principle is that a plywood sheet of standard dimensions (4 ft. by 8 ft.) is divided into simple fractions (e.g., halves, quarters) and used up in its entirety, with no material left over. A secondary design objective is that the parts comprising each furniture article be assembled into the finished object, by the purchaser, through the use of ready-to-assemble hardware.

 In aesthetic terms, the metamorphosis of plywood into furniture represents the transcendence of an object which is whole, two-dimensional and abstract in shape, into objects of a higher order, which are three-dimensional, functional and exhibit complex visual ordering systems. These ordering systems are manifest through shape relationships (positive/negative, concave/convex) inherent in the design process.

In terms of economy, this design approach wastes none of the originating material. In addition, the “ready-to-assemble” approach reduces the volume to be shipped by up to 90%, with corresponding savings in transportation. 

 The ecological issue is directly related to economy. The forest is not depleted of material that is subsequently wasted. There are no wasted by-products, impregnated with potentially hazardous chemicals, to be disposed of. The transportation savings represent reduced fuel consumption.