Does anyone actually like or buy this stuff?  

flat pack fever
I don't think art schools overtly promote sheet stock construction, although they do advocate "green design," which often leads students to flat pack. Material use is minimized. Transportation costs are reduced. Recycling is simplified by the use of single materials.
Students are also drawn to sheet stock because projects are both easy and inexpensive to conceive, mock up and prototype. Initial concepts can be realized with nothing more than paper and scissors.

It could
be said, couldn't it, that since sheet goods are a staple of industrial production we should expect many items to be designed for this material ?
That said, we would expect the best design possible, of course. The forms of
this coffee table (?) could be a bit more subtle. One of the imperatives for RTA (ready to assemble) furniture and cabinetry is that it should stay together once assembled ! The IKEA lines represent perhaps the highest volume of this stuff, around the world, at present. There is a major lack in the assembly instructions, in my opinion: The owner should be encouraged to glue the wood dowels when inserting them into their holes. In virtually all cases, these dowels are used only to locate the parts to each other, with metal or plastic hardware employed to draw the pieces together. Glue in the dowels could keep the parts together even if the hardware loosened over time. . .
There is a designer in New England somewhere who sells a line of hardwood furniture which slides together, using linear dovetail joints. Quite a feat, if you ask me -- but I guess he's got it figured out: he ships this stuff all over See below.
http://www.greendesigns.com/

Some good points there, even...
Some good points there, even so there is something too obvious and limited in most of it, thousands of knock down and flat pack designs (ikea included) don't appear to be so and are better. I used to work in a plywood factory and have always been a bit skeptical of the environmental claims for it, there is more waste than you'd think (at least its clean waste I suppose) and products made solely from it never seem to age well or have any longevity, there are only so many ways you can divide a sheet efficiently and once you get over the 'ooh thats clever' moment the furniture is unrewarding to say the least.
Sheet goods have benefits but the production is awful for the workers and worse for the furniture factory workers.
I know its not fair to compare student work with these images but the comparison is still interesting.
PS I'm not sure if the Vitra stuff dis-assembles, but it easily could be made to.

Hi!
I'm a bit busy, and loose a bit the training to write here, sorry. But don't want to pass this.
(I had written, but not publish about other threads, in coincidence with your points), but this with no coincidence....:
Well, I think just the opposite. I am, let's say, fascinated with flat-pack, provably more than those students.. 🙂
So let's see...
I think you ask two things,
1) why students do sometimes unpleasant flat pack or whatever stuff.
1b) See that they put those "flower" over the surface, just to confirm you are right abut the first example. Perhaps trying to you to pay attention there and no on the table. Sorry those are not for me.
2) Flat-pack. Is other subject.
so
1) There are all kind of students and doesn't have special relation with flat pack. We could discuss this with other technicals, or the same for other subjects, design or whatever: medicine, laws, etc.
2) I'm fascinated.
Perhaps I'm fascinated
1) Because I don't see that much flat pack stuff. and what I see I like it.
2) And because we don't have IKEAs here yet [Yes, thanks to God ;-)], perhaps that. But if does anything good Ikea, is just the flat pack concept. (plus just the basic stuff).
By the way, by the way, by the way....
One of the things that made me have this fascination was one project by yourself you posted once on your blog (about 2-3 years ago in the DAvase era). Was don't know if a furniture or just an object with the same piece repeated 20-30times.
If you want I could try to search it later.
Some flat pack I see here I like it:
Here is some made by Alejandro Sticotti a neighbour that's very near us. Was just in front of us .
http://www.netmuebles.com.ar/web.htm
(You have to go to "muebles", and then "estanteria"
http://www.dwr.com/product/living/office-storage-collections/sticotti/st...

Thanks for replying, I...
Thanks for replying, I wasn't referring to all design students by any means, just the proliferation of this work, especially in tables. Some of them are interesting but I think unrewarding over the long term, the interest is so fleeting.
I suppose there is a subtle distinction between flat pack and knock down? Much good furniture is knock down along with thousands of other designs, they have a 3 dimensionality when assembled that these thin products don't.
The real concern I have though is the longevity of the work, will they be around in 50 years? How well does the material age? Exposed ply edges, chipped veneer, thin melamine and bad edgebanding just doesn't appeal. To claim that the products are 'green' when the lifespan is short seems false to me, The embodied energy of plywood (not sure about mdf)is fairly high, better to do a job well in plantation timber that will last.
I think you are referring to the coat tree? It was ok but I wasn't happy with it, I have found a cheap source of air dried timber that is suitable for steam bending so may ressurect it with repeated S curves.

In praise of "Green Design"
The furniture company not the social design concept. SDR, I am the happy owner of one Doug Green's 'slide together' pieces. Actually I own the first ever produced of his Series 2 dining tables. It's a marvel. Sustainably harvested, solid cherry, and it goes together with nary a nail in sight, just two little stainless steel pins to anchor the top. We broke it down and moved it cross country quite easily. Sadly, Doug has moved on to other endeavors and has closed his furniture design business. I guess quality flat pack didn't quite catch on.