Nomadic Furniture 1
Hennessey, James and Papanek, Victor. New York, NY: Pantheon, 1973, 164 pp.
Nomadic Furniture 2
Hennessey, James and Papanek, Victor. New York, NY: Pantheon, 1974, 158 pp.
Though these books were authored in 1973 and 1974, passages like this about nomadic living and frequent relocation could have been written yesterday or next week, “For those of us in the ‘floating academic crap-game’ (professors), ‘forever’ is a 9-month appointment.” The focus is on, “How to build and where to buy lightweight furniture that folds, collapses, stacks, knocks down, inflates or can be thrown away and recycled.” Being both a book of instruction and a catalog of access for easy moving.
Were it not for the appearance of reel-to-reel players in some of the photos, many of the designs would feel completely contemporary – in part because of a resurgence of interest in this period of design, but also because they are still relevant to people’s needs.
Via Temporary Services’ Self-Reliance Library. Many many many of these plans can be found on a Google image search as well. —D.
