Olafur Thordarson: Furniture/product design--Iceland

Graphis, May/Jun 2001 by Porciello, Michael

"I don't want to go into the corporate world and die there before it's time, the way most architects end up," Olafur Thordarson says, explaining why, though trained in architecture under Steven Holl at Columbia University, he puts more of his energy into designing objects than drafting buildings. "I always try to keep my feet in several places at once."

Thordarson treats his work as a process in which a design for one project can easily become another. But whether he ultimately creates a clock, an office space or a plan for urban redevelopment, it starts with a sketch, drawn as soon as the inspiration hits him and recorded in a pad he carries around. A meticulous draftsman, Thordarson keeps all of his sketches carefully indexed and labeled on a shelf in his studio, and he frequently goes back through his old thoughts for new ideas. Hence a city could become a wine rack three years later.

Like his native Iceland, where volcanic activity creates a constantly changing landscape-almost a quarter of the country is buried under either lava or ice-Thordarson's designs are rigid yet unpredictable. Their shapes originate from a grid, but a grid that is uncompromisingly off-kilter, made up of irregular angles and uneven distances. Many of his works are created with molds, cast with concrete, resin or silicon, and possess a sculptural quality. The molds are lined with materials such as drop cloths, leaves and newspaper to create almost organic textures, resulting in each piece being a completely individual and unique object. Thordarson currently manufactures all of his own designs because he has yet to find a way to mass-produce them while retaining their uniqueness.

From 1990 to 1997, Thordarson worked side by side with Italian architect Gaetano Pesce as his project designer and architect, collaborating on such projects as the Organic Building in Osaka, Japan, and the redesign of TBWA Chiat/Day's New York office. Since he left-in addition to working out of his lower-Manhattan Dingaling Studio-- he has been a guest critic at Parsons School of Design and has taught industrial design at the Rhode Island School of Design.

Currently his feet, along with those of his fiancee Donna Fumoso, a make-up artist who is working on hand-made jewelry for Nicole Miller, are most firmly planted in Das Boot (www.dasboot.org; www.dingaling.net), a web page they started in 1998. Part online portfolio, the site also periodically features the work of other artists as well as a list of upcoming grants and competitions, so others in the field can get their foot in the door. Featuring an eclectic mix of artists from a wide range of disciplines, Thordarson is able to keep in touch with all the disciplines that inform his design and, by standing still, be in many places at once.-Michael Porciello