Gamper Martino » A 100 Chairs in 100 Days

A 100 Chairs in 100 Days

100 Chairs in 100 Days Exhibition

100 Chairs in 100 Days
by Martino Gamper
5 Cromwell Place, London
2–15 October 2007

This project involves systematically collecting discarded chairs from London streets (or more frequently, friends’ homes) over a period of about roughly two years, then spending 100 days to reconfiguring the design of each one in an attempt to transform its character and/or the way it functions. My intention is to investigate the potential for creating useful new designs by blending together stylistic or structural elements of existing chair types.

I see this as a chance to create a ‘three-dimensional sketchbook’, a set of playful yet thought-provoking designs that, due to the time constraint, are put together with a minimum of analysis. As well as possibly making one or more designs that might be suitable for mass production, I intend to question the idea of there being an innate superiority in the one-off, to use this mongrel morphology to demonstrate the difficulty of any particular design being objectively judged ‘the best’. I also hopes my chairs illustrate – and celebrate – the geographical, historical and human resonance of design: what can they tell us about London, the sociological context of seating from different areas, and the people who owned each one? The stories behind the chairs are as important as their style or even their function.

The project suggests a new way to stimulate design thinking, and provokes debate about a number of issues, including value, different types of functionality and what is an appropriate style for certain types of chair – for example, what happens to the status and potential of a plastic garden chair (conventionally located slap bang in the idiom of unremarkable functionality) when it is upholstered with luxurious brown suede? In essence, this exercise champions a certain elasticity of approach – both in terms in highlighting the importance of the sociological/personal/geographical/historical context of design, and in enabling the creative potential of elements of randomness and spontaneity to be brought to the fore.
M.G

The exhibition was made possible with the generous help of Blackburn Associates Limited Design Project and Åbäke

Posted in A 100 Chairs in 100 Days

100 Chairs in 100 Days Exhibition

Posted in A 100 Chairs in 100 Days

Confronting the Chair / Exhibition at the Design Museum

Confronting the Chair
Design Museum
London
2 Dec 2006–25 Feb 2007

‘There is no perfect chair’ declares the designer Martino Gamper, who has been making a chair a day in a bid to make 100 chairs in 100 days. Using a stock pile of discarded and donated chairs Gamper creates his new chairs from elements of existing ones. By deconstructing the chair he gains a new insight into its construction and use of materials which informs the creation of the new design. The process is immediate, spontaneous like sketching in three dimensions. These chairs will be displayed in the Design Museum alongside some selected by Gamper from the Design Museum collection.

From the press release

Posted in A 100 Chairs in 100 Days

A 100 Chairs in 100 Days

As a continuation of Martino’s interest in making as well as collecting chairs, he has decided to make one hundred chairs in 100 days. He will be collecting chairs from friends, streets and skips. In a way, the whole process of ﬁnding and reconstructing chairs works more like a sketchbook he is happy to work with. It should be possible to ‘design’ and ‘sketch’ in 3D. Will any of the hundred become the model of a mass-produced chair? But more generally, what will happen to them? How can they be used? etc.

Backside
3 September 2007