09 Jun Charity Chair

Love the work by Group A who participated in the ‘Charity Chair’ challenge by AIT and Dietiker. The challenge was to redesign the wooden chair “Ono” by Matthias Weber. The re-designed chairs were sold in an auction in Berlin with the revenues supporting the the Guga S´Thebe cultural centre and AIDS orphanage in the Langa Township in Cape Town, South Africa.

Group A said about their design and chair: “The patterns we used for the perforations in the chair are inspired by patterns used in traditional Xhosa face painting. These patterns are still widely used in South Africa, including in the Langa Township. By using these patterns in our design, we feel we go one step further than just making a contribution to the lives of the people in the Langa Township, because the people of the Langa Township themselves contribute to the design of our Charity Chair by inspiring us with their rich cultural heritage. In our approach, we seek to address the same values as the Guga S´Thebe cultural centre and AIDS orphanage, which use this rich cultural heritage to strengthen the residents’ self-esteem. Both these initiatives have a very positive effect on the lives of the citizens in the Langa Township, and we are happy to support them. Also, we feel that the ‘Xhosa’ Charity Chair shows that good design can have a social function as well as a strong conceptual background.”