Idea Prototyping: Chair Building Workshop at La Reserve des Arts
The Idea prototyping class went to the Reserve des Art to learn the skills to build a chair from scratch using the Enzo Mari’s model in his book Autoprogettazione. Art, Media and Technology Junior Mayomi Basnayaka tells us about the project.
On November 6th 2018, we all met up at the Reserve des Art in Pantin (30 minutes metro from Parsons Paris) for our Idea Prototyping class. The Reserve des Arts is a space where people can come and buy used/recycled materials – anything from marbles all the way to plaques of wood. Anytime I go, I always seem to find a lot of hidden treasures like some beautiful cabinet knobs someone decided they no longer needed!
Scavenging through the materials, with the help of Parsons Paris Director of Technology Ivan Twohig and our professor James Auger, we found the perfect pieces of wood to take apart to use to build our chair. We carried it to the back of the Reserve des Art where there is a workshop space, to build our chair.
We started by cleaning up the wood by taking out all the nails, and sanding them down. Then after reviewing Autoprogettazione we cut the wood to the dimensions that Mari specified. Taking turns drilling holes and screwing screws, we each had a part in making this chair. Although we made a couple mistakes along the way – like forgetting to include a piece – we improvised and made it our own! James and Ivan taught us each step very thoroughly, and made sure that we all hand hands on experience in making this chair. Although not identical to the one of Enzo Mari, we successfully made a chair. A quite comfortable one, if I may say so myself!
Written by Mayomi Basnayaka