Framework Lab
‘Framework Lab’ is an interactive design installation that encourages participants to engage in a creative process based on randomised constraints. By providing a context, materials and connections within an open-ended structure, each participant receives a unique framework to guide their journey. This approach highlights how restrictions generate creative engagement and user agency.
By embracing the generative power of constraints, Framework Lab creates a dynamic, user-driven experience where frameworks serve as tools for exploration. This approach challenges traditional systems of design and architecture to empower participants. Thus, Framework Lab counters the production of rigid artefacts and instead offers a highly potent and flexible process.
Ultimately, Framework Lab reframes users as contributors or creators by offering a space that challenges industrial standards and helps people rediscover the empowering nature of making. The aim is to foster a more critical, reflective and self-directed relation- ship between people and their material environments.
Upon arrival, participants begin by reading a brief introduction before drawing their first card from the Context Deck. Each Context Card defines a function and setting for a seating object, marking the starting point of their journey through the Framework Lab. In addition to setting the general context, the card also indicates how many Material and Connection Cards should be drawn. Together, these cards form a framework of constraints within which participants will design and build.
To support their process and encourage reflection, each participant receives a reflection sheet containing four guiding questions and space for personal notes. Participants are also invited to consult the online archive, which serves multiple purposes: it offers inspiration and guidance, records a wide range of past outcomes, and builds a growing, collaborative library of user-driven designs.
Cards are at the core of the Framework Lab; by drawing cards from the various decks, you create the framework for your project. Context, Material, and Connection cards define the goal of your process and the constraints within which you will become creative. Special Action cards can be drawn at a later stage to add another layer to your process. All cards are based on a code-system that lets you locate materials and connections easily. The code also makes it easy to track and archive outcomes based on the cards that construct individual frameworks.
The Material Archive is a curated selection of wood components in various sizes and shapes, sourced from standard hardware stores. All parts are chosen for their accessibility, reusability, and compatibility with simple tools and joining methods. By limiting the available materials, the archive introduces clear constraints—encouraging thoughtful decision-making and creative problem-solving. Participants are invited to browse the archive, select their components, and work with what is available, much like navigating real-world limitations in design and production.
After drawing their cards, participants move into the making phase of the Framework Lab. Here, they begin to interpret the combination of constraints set by their Context, Material, and Connection cards. Using their creativity and intuition, each participant designs a seating object within the boundaries of their assigned framework.
All materials are sourced from local hardware stores to ensure transparency and accessibility. Tools are simple and familiar—no advanced machinery, glue, or screws—just dowels, clamps, stencils, and fixed-angle jigs. Cutting is limited, encouraging deliberate decisions and minimising waste.
Participants sketch, test, and adapt their designs in real time. The focus is not on perfect outcomes, but on actively navigating the framework through making. Help is available from facilitators when needed, but participants are encouraged to work independently.
Before finishing, each piece undergoes a light Quality Check, focused on basic functionality and stability. Participants document their work with a photograph and can upload it along with their reflection sheet to the Framework Lab Archive, contributing to a growing collection of outcomes and insights accessible to future visitors.
The archive serves multiple purposes: it provides inspiration and guidance for future participants, acts as a living record of the diverse outcomes, and creates a collaborative, community-driven library. Each archived entry includes details about the materials and connection techniques used, the context, and the skill level of the creator. This enables users from various backgrounds to learn from each other’s experiences.
Framework Lab is an innovative participatory installation that allows participants to explore furniture design through hands-on creativity, critical thinking, and active reflection. The Lab challenges traditional consumer-product relationships by turning participants into active creators rather than passive consumers. Through an engaging, card-driven experience, participants navigate a series of creative constraints that guide them in creating unique seating objects.
Upon entering the Lab, participants begin by drawing cards from three decks: Context, Material, and Connection. These cards provide structured limitations that stimulate creativity and define the purpose of the seating object, the materials used, and the type of connections allowed. Every card offers clear instructions and practical tips to balance freedom and constraint in a playful yet purposeful manner. For example, a Context card might prompt users to design a seating object for reading in a library, and a Material card assigns specific types of wood available in limited dimensions. Connection cards define the joining methods, such as rope or ratchet straps, eliminating the need for adhesives or complex machinery,and ensuring sustainability and reuse of all parts.
The Framework Lab addresses urgent contemporary concerns, such as the detachment of consumers from production processes, the rigidity of human-made environments and the standardisation inherent in industrial mass production. By involving users in the design and production process, the Lab fosters a deeper understanding of design thinking, materials, and the complexities of objects in general. This process creates the potential for individuals to reclaim the agency of their immediate environments, encouraging them to rethink conventional consumption patterns and fostering an ethos of sustainability and circularity.
In architecture and design, frameworks act as influential structures that shape outcomes, possibilities, and limitations. These frameworks emerge from a combination of natural factors, such as climate and geography, and artificial factors, including policies, traditions, and industrial standards. Often, designers and architects unconsciously operate within these predefined boundaries, producing standardized solutions that rarely accommodate the individual needs of modern societies. Framework Lab challenges these established practices by actively exposing and redefining the role of frameworks. Participants learn to consciously negotiate constraints, discovering how limitations can become powerful generators for creativity, innovation, and personal expression.
Frameworks not only guide creation but also have a profound impact on the society that inhabits their outcomes. When generative industries challenge the frameworks that define their practice too rarely, they limit the diversity and adaptability of the resulting environments. Framework Lab seeks to address this issue by providing a structured yet flexible way of using frameworks that allow for flexible, user-driven outcomes. This approach challenges the notion of searching for fixed solutions, emphasising the importance of user agency.
Participants are encouraged to document their process and outcomes, reflecting on key insights, challenges, and successes. This documentation is digitally archived and made publicly accessible via an online archive. The archive serves multiple purposes: it provides inspiration and guidance for future participants, acts as a living record of the diverse outcomes, and creates a collaborative, community-driven library. Each archived entry includes details about the materials and connection techniques used, the context, and the skill level of the creator. This enables users from various backgrounds to learn from each other’s experiences.
By fostering flexibility and enabling participants to have agency over their physical surroundings, Framework Lab goes beyond traditional design practices. It is a critical platform that highlights how structured constraints generate creativity and meaningful personal engagement. By democratising the act of design and production, the Lab generates a unique community-driven platform that promotes diverse expressions of creativity, sustainable thinking, and an open-ended practice. Participants leave not only with tangible skills and renewed confidence but also with a deeper awareness of their role in shaping the designed world around them.