What inspired you to come up with the idea to build 100 chairs in 100 days? Well I've been collecting chairs for a long time. I've always picked up chairs in the street. The idea itself though started with a project I did years ago with a friend of mine called 'Furniture while you wait'. We drove round London collecting bits of furniture from the street and turning them into other things.
Was that when your interest in found materials began? I was particularly inspired by the fact that these materials were free. You finish college with no money and it seemed like a very quick way to instantly start working; it didn't involve any manufacturing, I didn't have to go to a factory, spend any money or persuade anyone to sell my products. I could just express myself.
And 100 chairs is an extension of this, presumably? I just kept collecting chairs and people started giving me chairs and I thought, fine, I'll make 100 of them in 100 days. It came really as an exercise or reaction against mass manufacturing that's dominated design for the past thirty years or so. Creating 100 different chairs, one a day, is my own take on the manufacturing process.
Is it a challenge of time or inspiration? There's obviously time pressure because I don't have days or weeks to think about a perfect chair each time I make one. With regards to constantly needing inspiration, it's more about creating a character for each chair, establishing its uniqueness. I'm very careful not to simply reproduce ideas or designs because that's what manufacturing does, and the whole project is a test against established modes of manufacturing.
Do you take the deconstructing of existing chairs as a starting point for your inspiration then? It's an important part certainly, looking at existing chairs and seeing how they work, how they were put together in the first place, what elements stick out. I try and collect all these pieces of information and then reconstruct them in different ways, putting ideas together that wouldn't normally be thought of in the same design.
You've been given design classics amongst other materials. What's it like to pull apart an Aalto or an Eames? Does it alter your perceptions of them, seeing how they were made? That's interesting - wondering why certain chairs are made the way they are, you only really get an idea from taking them apart. But it's not just designer chairs, taking apart a plastic garden chair is quite insightful too.
Why have you chosen to use the chair? I think the chair is probably one of the most complex pieces of furniture design. It has to look good, it has to be stable and it has to perform its function. These are three difficult elements to take into consideration when creating a chair.
It might have been easier if you'd done a stool instead?! Indeed. A stool or table would be much easier. A table is just a piece of wood with four legs, it can even look quite clumsy, but a chair has to be functional.
Is there a routine to your daily process? I guess the process is a little like 3-dimensional sketching, I go to the workshop, look at all the chairs again and try to get a fresh idea. I develop the idea and then start making the chair from scratch with no drawings. I studied sculpture in Merano originally, so I'm more comfortable dealing with 3-dimensional products generally. We test them all too of course.
What will happen to them once you've completed the 100? I would like to keep them as a collection for as long as possible and show them in as many places as possible as a complete collection. I think it would be a huge shame if they just dispersed as soon as the project was finished.
How would you feel if a manufacturer came to you and offered to fund the mass production of all 100 chairs? I don't think it would be the right way to go. If someone picked-up on one particular chair, perhaps, depending on which piece it was, I'd be happy to talk to a manufacturer.
Given the premise of your project, would you feel in any way hypocritical? Again, I think it depends which piece. Having the opportunity to manufacture a very particular chair from the collection could be an interesting development on the design process of the project.
You've done corners, now chairs, what's next? I like to take one aspect of something and spend time with it, rather than moving form one product to another. I hope to go on with chairs for a while, I've got a lot left in me!
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