Architecture, Interiors, Model Making & Furniture Design
The Opening Book
Furniture design | Concept development | Full-scale model making
Swing Drawer Cabinet is an experimental furniture piece exploring the relationship between storage, movement and user interaction. Rather than conventional drawers that pull directly outward, the drawers swing sideways from the cabinet, creating an opening movement inspired by the action of opening a book.
As the drawers open, the cabinet changes from a compact vertical object into a more dynamic, layered composition. The staggered drawers reveal the internal structure and create a changing relationship between the furniture, its contents and the person using it. The result is a functional storage cabinet conceived as both furniture and a sculptural object.
The design began with a simple question.
What if a drawer could be opened like a book rather than pulled forward?
Each drawer swings laterally from the main structure, creating a sequence of opening movements. Like the pages of a book, the individual elements move away from the central body and reveal what is contained within.
The concept transforms an ordinary storage action into a more expressive physical experience. The cabinet is therefore not static. Its appearance changes according to whether the drawers are closed, partially opened or fully extended.
The strong vertical form provides a relatively compact footprint, while the staggered arrangement of the swing drawers creates a sense of movement and rhythm. When opened, the drawers project outward at different positions, producing an almost architectural quality — a series of planes extending from a central structure.
The cabinet can therefore be experienced in two states:
The design explores how movement can become part of the visual language of furniture.
Conceptual drawings — elevations, section and drawer detailsThe swing itself is a single pivot: an upright mild steel pipe carried on a welded flat-bar bracket, countersunk into the underside of each drawer so nothing shows on the face. The two drawer depths, 160 mm and 320 mm, are what produce the staggered rhythm when the cabinet is open. open the elevations full size ↗ · open the details full size ↗
The project was developed as a full-scale 1:1 prototype, allowing the concept to be tested at the scale of actual human interaction. Working at full scale made it possible to understand the proportions of the cabinet, the relationship between the drawers and the surrounding structure, and most importantly, the physical movement required to open each drawer.
The prototype became more than a representation of the design. It became a way of testing the idea through making. This approach — moving between concept, drawing, three-dimensional study and physical construction — has continued to influence my design practice.
The cabinet is constructed in timber, with the natural warmth of the material reinforcing the tactile and crafted quality of the piece.
The relatively substantial timber components give the cabinet a sense of solidity, while the gaps between the drawer fronts introduce shadow and separation between the individual elements. These spaces become particularly expressive when the drawers are opened, emphasising the layered construction and the movement of each component.
Although the cabinet was developed as a functional storage piece, the project also explored the idea that furniture can have an architectural presence. The cabinet has its own scale, rhythm, structure and spatial relationship with the user. Opening a drawer changes not only access to storage, but also the physical footprint and visual composition of the object.
An object can be functional while also communicating through form, movement and three-dimensional space.
From a class of forty-seven interior design students, the Swing Drawer Cabinet was one of seven furniture designs selected to be manufactured as a full-scale 1:1 prototype.
This provided the opportunity to take the design beyond drawings and concept development and experience the challenges of translating an idea into a physical, working object.
Looking back at Swing Drawer Cabinet, I can see an early interest in ideas that continue to appear throughout my creative practice — form, proportion, movement, structure, material and the transformation of two-dimensional ideas into three-dimensional objects.
The cabinet was designed almost thirty years before my current ceramic sculpture practice, yet the underlying approach feels remarkably familiar. I was interested in taking a simple everyday object and changing the way it behaves.
Today, I approach clay in a similar spirit — beginning with an idea and allowing the physical process of making to transform it into an object that occupies real space.
For enquiries, please contact lee.anchor@optusnet.com.au.