SIT DOWN AND FEEL
One of humanity’s most important contributions, and one that supports, literally and often to the extreme, our choice not to move, is the chair. Disregarding the hip joint’s capacity for permanent movement, we adopt from an early age a sitting posture that in adulthood can account for an average of 7 hours of every day, according to studies by experts in workplace ergonomics, who also recommend changing positions from time to time, lest we begin to take root. Our body spends so much time in a chair that the challenge for designers has been to create one with a backrest and seat that merge with the body to unload its weight, distributing it over four legs. The process of imagining, recreating, developing, and producing a new chair is summarized in each iconic model that scholars of the history of design have placed on the timeline of humanity —which since the industrial revolution seems to spend increasingly more time seated— and of a profession exploding with endless creativity and rife with proposals for furniture that contradicts, complies with, reformulates, and varies the possibilities of our bodily actions when we stop moving around to rest, find ourselves, feel, and sit down.
Seated we concentrate on specific tasks that require stillness and attention, including stopping to do nothing. Seated we eat and discharge our weight and excrement; seated we are carried along by an effort that is not our own, transported on wheels or in various seats installed in vehicles that shorten distances. Seated we occupy —expressing our intent to stay more than a few minutes (as if sedated and calm) the place we choose or are assigned— which some will experience as a position and others as a throne (depending on the training that each sedentary person has been given with respect to the meaning of life).
THE COMPETITION
In honor of this piece of furniture —not to be taken for granted, given its infinite possibilities for materialization and because it provides us with so many opportunities to experiment from our sedentary human condition and creative profession through the use of reusing different materials—, we have launched an alliance with the Colombian company, Pinturas Tito Pabón, and with support from organizations and individuals who trust in the fruits of our proposals and concrete actions, a competition to design a chair made from Andean bamboo (Chusquea Scandens), open to creatives from around the world and in which the best international and Colombian proposals will be awarded.
THE PRIZE
2 winners + 10 Honorable mentions
It will go to the best Colombian proposal and the best international proposal. The winners will be 2 creative people!
Round trip tickets from the national and foreign location, previously agreed upon with each of the winners.
A week to construct a 1:1 prototype of the chair and enjoy Lab X, a workspace equipped with tools and materials fully available for the meeting of the 2 winners.
A week of immersion in the Andean forest landscape of Residences X with a private room and inspired food prepared by our guest chef.
A day of guided expedition to the Chingaza National Natural Park.
A celebration with an exhibition of the 2 winning chairs, with Promedio friends and special guests.
A package of gifts from our supporters.
10 honorable mentions that will be disclosed on our page, social networks and allied publications.
THE INSPIRATIONAL MATERIAL
In mid-November 2022, an avalanche of mud destroyed a large amount of the flora growing on the banks of La Marmaja creek, the body of water that refreshes the Andean forest that we care for and that cares for us in the rural area near Bogotá where we live. Adhering to emergency recommendations for reducing risks in subsequent storms, we removed the logs, sticks, stones, and branches that were blocking the flow of water in the creek. In a taxonomic labor based on simple observation we separated the materials: on a small, oriental-looking mountain, chusque stalks began to spring up; strong stems —more flexible when greener— which we used in the panel of the bathroom door in our house, discovering the beauty of the shadows cast by sunlight passing through the panel in a kind of Persian blind effect.
An Andean bamboo stick is a natural stem that reaches 2 and 3 centimeters in solid diameter and 5 meters that lengthen and become thinner in diameter. It is thermoformable and moldable the more recently harvested. It can be cut with the tools used to work the wood and its long fibers can be used for weaving.
But what to do with all the other stalks? We moved on to other jobs and had no time to experiment, but without a doubt, our intention to use them will be reflected in a unique object requiring a solid structure and with a lightweight appearance, whose design will make the most of the properties and physical characteristics of these magic Andean bamboo wands. Our raw material is a native grass that sends out roots in a powerful underground network and binds together the earth while restoring it and preparing it for the growth of subsequent Andean timber forests, which the brevity of our existence will not allow us to witness, but that will guarantee the existence of so many other beings that call Earth their home. Chusque grass ––which many locals consider an invasive devourer and eradicator of the forest–– is, in fact, the prelude to a forest, a process best illustrated by a researcher we greatly admire, Mateo Hernandez: “All the mountains that we now see completely covered with chusque have been affected by the gradual or sudden destruction of the forest, due almost always to human activities such as felling trees, uncontrolled grazing of livestock, and burning. These places are now regenerating. And let’s not forget: chusque does not last forever. Under it, in certain places, small trees grow and emerge. And one day, after many decades, all of the chusque on a mountain will bloom, for only once in its life. (After bamboo flowers and goes to seed, it dies.) A portion of the new seedlings will grow and stand firm, but the forest advances at its own pace, unstoppable, year after year, century after century, devouring the chusque. That’s why the most intact old-growth forests have almost no chusque in them! So who eats who?…» http://biodiversidadyconservacion.blogspot.com/2013/07/los-chusques-bambues-de-los-andes.html
SCHEDULE
October 11 – Launch / Call for entries
November 28 – Lunch and talk with guests from CAR (ambiental authority institution)
December 22 – Registration deadline
January 12 – Deliverables submission deadline
January 31 – Jury announces winning designs and honorable mentions
March / April 2024 (1 week with the winners, dates to be defined):
– Construction of chairs in LabX
– Lunch and chat with Mateo Hernandez at LabX
– Guided tour of Páramo de Chingaza nature reserve
– Closing celebration and exhibition of chairs at LabX
ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
• Open to all.
• Single participant per proposal.
• The proposal must be for the design of a chair whose main component is Andean bamboo (Chusquea Scandens).
• The design may include other materials to be combined with Andean bamboo.
• The proposal may be submitted in Spanish or English.
Competition Regulations >
REGISTRATION FEES
International submissions: $ 25 USD + taxes
Submissions by Colombians: $ 50,000 COP + IVA
DELIVERABLES
Proposal must include 3 boards in .jpg format (3200 x 2400 px), containing:
- A three-dimensional representation of the design (any technique), with a 400-word (max.) text explaining the proposal.
- Design plans, elevations, and sections*
- Representations of details, joins, and assemblies*
* Images must include measurements, information regarding the use of other materials, and everything needed to understand how the chair will be built.
THE JURY
Christine Facella
Designer, maker and founder of ‘Modest’ (www.thisismodest.org) – a design and research entity that explores and supports reforestation and restoration systems in the Americas, through product and material applications. Her work, independently and as a team member, has won several awards including from the Association of Landscape Architects and the Van Alen Institute in New York.
In addition to Modest, Christine is a full-time Assistant Professor at Parsons School of Design in New York where she teaches regenerative product design; runs a small ceramic studio in Brooklyn (Beetle & Flor) where her work has been featured in publications including The Wall Street Journal; and has15+ years of experience working as a product designer with non-profits, global artisans and design firms including West Elm and Estee Lauder brands.
Dominic Sturm
President Swiss Design Association
Dominic has been working as an industrial designer and design strategist for more than two decades. He is co-founder of FOND Design, a studio for industrial design, UX design and strategy design in Zurich. He is president of the Swiss Design Association SDA and a member of various committees – such as the main jury of the Swiss Technology Award or the James Dyson Design Award. In 2019, he was invited to join the design jury of the Cannes Lions Awards. Dominic teaches at the Schools of Design in Zurich and Graubünden and acts as an examination expert for the Bachelor International Design Management at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts and the Bachelor Industrial Design at the Zurich University of the Arts.
Heikki Ruoho
www.heikkiruoho.com
He was trained in the Lahti Institute of Design Industrial Design Program from which he received a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 2000, and in the Aalto University School of Arts Furniture Design Program, Design and Architecture from which he received the degree of Master/Master of Arts (MA) in 2005. Since 1998 he has been dedicated to the design and development of product and furniture. In parallel he shares his experience as a teacher in the academic institutions of which he is a former student, among others. From 2003 to 2013 he led the design office Järvi & Ruoho with Teemu Järvi. Currently working with ALA Architects, who won the award of the design of the new Helsinki Central Library, project in which he is in charge of the interior and furniture design.
He has received international awards including: Ornamo Design Award (Finland-08), Fennia Prize (Finland -07), Oribe Craft Design Award (Japan -06), Caiazza Memorial Challenge in the Promosedia International Chair Exhibition (Italy -04), Workspaces (USA – 01), European Packaging Design Prize (Sweden -00), A House for the Third Millennium (Italy – 99), and Koizumi Lightning Design Competition (Japan -94).
His designs have been featured in exhibitions and publications such as Abitare, Domus, Frame, Interni, Ottagono, Svensk Form and the Finnish Design Yearbook. The children’s chair in recycled cardboard «Kenno» (2011) is part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Art of Philadelphia (OF. UU.). He has received grants for the development of his work by the Arts Council of Finland (-12 and -13), the Finnish Cultural Foundation (-06 and -09) and the Finnish Furniture Foundation (-05).
Marta Eugenia Martínez
Director Insigma Asociados SAS
Industrial Designer and a graduate of the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Colombia) with a post-graduate degree in Office Workplace Comfort from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (USA).
Her professional career includes 40 years in furnishings, during which time she has grown as an office design consultant for Knoll Furniture, Herman Miller, and Teknion. For the past 22 years she has run Insigma Asociados SAS, a sales company specializing in furniture and finishings for offices and commercial spaces. Marta believes that the chair is the most important piece of furniture in spaces of human interaction, be it a work space, an eating space, or a space for creating or resting, and although many chair designs focus on ergonomics, she finds that esthetics, language, and geographic and historical context are of vital importance, as well as the materials used and the manner in which they are manufactured.
Paola Cabrera
Her interests have focused on exploring and developing the relationships between design and culture, in particular its strategic dimensions in relation to participation and learning in the creative discipline. When does design create value instead of just adding it? When does it imply strategic benefit? For whom? Cabrera works in inclusive ways to make design with the conviction that the creation of knowledge is key in the promotion of creativity and positive senses of autonomy and community, belonging and care; understanding contexts and stories, design has positive effects on society, its well-being, innovation and ultimately its cultural sustainability. Her experience and sensitivity is reflected in an extensive and varied work, both within the academy and outside it, especially for the craft sector.
She holds a Master of Design (MA) from the same university with her undergraduate work entitled «Reflections on design for competitive artisan communities -Towards an approach for sustainability of local cultures», was also part of the selection of the annual exhibition of the University Masters of Arts MoA 2005.
The National University of Colombia awarded her a degree in Industrial Design, with distinction meritorious research “Fragments for a history of objects in Bogotá, 1900-1930” (1996). She was linked for nearly five years with Artesanías de Colombia for strategic development of the sector and products with communities of artisans and its designs have been part of several editions of Expoartesanías. At the Universidad del Rosario, Colombia, she did a specialization in Management and Cultural Management with the degree work “A proposal for characterization and development: Center for the Indigenous Peoples of Colombia—Knowledge, Material Culture and Existence«. Since 2001 she has been based in Helsinki, Finland, where she teaches history, design, culture and sustainability at Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture. She has a Master of Design (MA) from the same University with her degree work titled “[craft] Reflections on design for competitive artisan communities—Towards an approach for sustainability of local cultures”. She was also part of the selection for the annual exhibition of the University Masters of Arts MoA 2005.
HOSTS
Catalina López B.
Director Fundación Promedio
Industrial designer and a graduate of the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Colombia) with a post-graduate degree in Architecture and Ephemeral Arts from the Universidad Politécnica of Cataluña. Catalina works in the transformation of meaning of forgotten and/or discarded objects and materials through different manual techniques and processes, rescuing their beauty and giving them new functions and new life.
For more than a decade she has co-directed Fundación Promedio, a Colombian organization dedicated to developing and implementing sustainable strategies aimed at encouraging individual experimentation leading to collective construction and restoration of the territories that she affectionately effects. Catalina has participated in collective exhibitions related to nature, caring and sustainable practices, and the formulation of habitable imageries. Her other contributions include consulting in sustainability and writing and editing for architecture, art, and design publications in both Colombia and abroad. Her blog http://cantalicia.blogspot.com/ and her work as part of the network of experts for La Silla Vacía helped develop the writing that led to the album-book La niña con dientes de mentirosita (2011) y Casa, her latest work-in-progress.
Samuel Córdoba Olier
Director Fundación Promedio
Architect and graduate of the Universidad de Los Andes with a masters (MFA) in Production Design from the American Film Institute (Los Angeles.) While residing in Los Angeles Samuel worked as an art director in the entertainment industry until 2006, when, in a change of direction, he returned to Colombia to produce and direct his first documentary, Tumaco Pacífico, winner of three international awards. As co-director of Fundación Promedio he began Silla RE-USO, a design project that created chairs from recycled television and refrigerator boxes. While continuing his audiovisual work recording community and social processes for a number of independent projects, the past five years have taken Samuel into bio-construction, where he developed his architectural work, Palafito Montañero, and has enjoyed sharing his knowledge and techniques in a variety of learning environments. His ongoing constructive explorations are based on discarded yet transformable materials and use manual and collective construction methodologies to carry out large-scale proposals in different communities and environments.
SCIENTIFIC ADVISOR
Mateo Hernández
Naturalist and environmental consultant dedicated to roving forests, mountains, cities, wetlands, and other ecosystems in search of all the plants and animals living in them.
For the past two decades, Mateo has worked with farms and nature reserves on the best ways of preserving and restoring their natural habitats and biodiversity.
For more information, visit Mateo’s profile on the Naturalista website: https://colombia.inaturalist.org/people/391471
ENVIRONMENTAL ADVISOR
Laura Lorena Garavito R.
Environmental Consultant CAR
Environmental Engineer (U. Manuela Beltrán), Specialist in Environmental Law (U. Externado de Colombia), Master in Environmental Law and Sustainability (U. Jorge Tadeo Lozano). Engineer of the Regional Autonomous Corporation of Cundinamarca CAR, responsible for the strategic activities of bamboo/Guadua from the Directorate of Environmental Culture and Citizen Service (DCASC). Environmental consultant on issues related to the management and sustainable use of bamboo/Guadua; researcher and technical advisor of the National Federation of Bamboo and Guadua (FEDEBAMBUG), Member of the Colombian Bamboo Society; with more than 10 years of experience in management and technical advice on regulations for the use of bamboo in Colombia, work with communities, monitoring and evaluation of projects. Total professional experience of 15 years, 8 in the private sector and 7 in the public sector.
GUEST CHEF
Maryam Tertel
Maryam holds a degree in sociology from the University of Heidelberg (Germany) and is passionate about cooking, pastry making, and baking. Following her studies in Germany, she returned to Colombia and joined work teams at several organizations where she helped develop social and educational projects while maintaining her culinary passions. Maryam grew up surrounded by stoves, ovens, and grills and was influenced by the best recipes from Colombia, Germany, and Argentina. Her own personal experiments with diverse recipes and ingredients led her to found Panambí, offering artisanal patisserie and baked products. She has directed a number of workshops for Fundación Promedio and celebrated with them her love of cooking and delicious food.
IG: panambi_cocina
Title
Andean bamboo chair - Call for EntriesType
Competition Announcement (Built Projects & Masterplans)Website
Organizers
Registration Deadline
December 22, 2023 11:48 AMSubmission Deadline
January 12, 2024 11:47 AMVenue
Andean forest, ColombiaPrice
25 USD