Reuben Starbuck Jackson

I am a practicing architect in Manhattan and maintain a workshop in Williamsburg for the fabrication of furniture pieces. My preparation includes a BA in fine arts from the University of Pennsylvania, and a M.Arch from the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture.
Architecture forms the background of our world and changes parallel to the more variable, conscious and explicit aspects of our collective experience.
For several decades, we have been in an age of texture maps—decorative surface treatments cladding a concealed interior structure. By freeing the surface from the inner logic of the construction, almost any appearance is possible.
My own work tries to cut against this current of two-dimensional surface appearance. An existential relationship with our world becomes possible by transcending its layers of technology.
By embracing and not hiding the artificial nature of plywood, I generate a new material sensibility or harmony. The cross-sections of the layers form the surface—the inside and outside become one. The work fuses function and strength into an organic form.
By experimenting with materials outside typical use, strikingly interesting new techniques of manipulation develop. New problems create new, interesting solutions. Following a very basic idea, material can reflexively lead to specific and unique expressions of function.
New technologies allow for serial modification within automated means of production. The computer helps streamline production—the actual process of production moves toward the hand of the computer-enabled designer.
Now, I seek a manufacturing design company whose understanding of new technologies promotes a positive, human outlook on the built environment. A healthy relationship with such a company will facilitate the realization of my ideas and abilities to generate unique and appealing products of functional art.