Modernist designer Enzo Mari has given Berlin-based mostly CUCULA the rights to redesign and sell his Autoprogettazione furniture to raise funds for its refugee support programme (+ slideshow).
The Autoprogrettazione manual was developed by Italian designer Enzo Mari in 1974 as a design manual to a collection of furnishings that could be assembled from the most fundamental resources, employing just a hammer and nails.
Following hosting a workshop for West African refugees primarily based all around Mari’s principles, CUCULA founder Sebastian Däschle contacted the designer who agreed to allow the organisation recreate and sell his styles from the guide.
The CUCULA educational programme aims to support refugees by educating them to design and style and develop furniture, and also delivers basic schooling, help with language abilities, and legal tips.
Related story: Pim van der Mijl types “residing space” to bring refugees and locals collectively
Below Däschle’s guidance five refugees from the organisation have designed limited-edition versions of Mari’s furniture.
Pieces had been developed using wood from refugee camp huts, as nicely as planks from boats employed to travel to Lampedusa – an Italian island that serves as a European entry level for numerous migrants.
“This is how the young African furniture designers flip chaos and desolation into higher-top quality objects, which in their engaging aesthetic invite for a dialogue,” a spokesperson from CUCULA told Dezeen.
“They are ambassadors – ambassadors of their stories, for an frame of mind, for an thought,” they extra.
Political unrest and fighting in Africa and the Middle East has generated a massive influx of refugees into Europe, with Germany getting the largest amount of asylum seekers.
Related story: Layout is about folks – like refugees
CUCULA, also named the Refugees Organization for Crafts and Style, was founded in 2014 in response to the crisis. In accordance to the group, its title originates from the African Hausa language and implies to do one thing collectively or to take care of every single other.
5 refugees from the CUCULA programme with their constrained-edition versions of the furnishings
CUCULA’s Enzo Mari collection includes the Bambino children’s chair – a smaller sized model of Mari’s Sedia design – and a bench which provides storage space under a liftable seat. Other CUCULA participants have altered the proportions of Mari’s original types, generating furnishings that’s personalised for taller or shorter customers.
“We want to offer you actual jobs for refugees and developing up a firm as an cost-effective integration model,” mentioned a spokesperson.
The staff making the restricted-edition furniture in the workshop. Photograph is by Sally Lazic
“The notion of the entire model is aiming to give refugees the genuine chance to offer for their lives and to construct up a long term.”
“We are nevertheless fighting for the function visa through CUCULA,” they extra. “The contracts to employe the trainees are at the immigration workplace – it’s a long bureaucratic procedure.”
In an viewpoint column for Dezeen, Vienna-based designer Talia Radford highlighted the require for designers to aid discover solutions for the ongoing refugee crisis.
It’s a subject Layout Academy Eindhoven graduates also turned their interest to this year. Tasks integrated a mobile embassy for migrants, a conceptual citizenship-swapping digital platform, and a living space created to bring Dutch locals and refugees collectively to socialise.
The pieces had been created utilizing wood from refugee protest camp huts, as properly as planks from boats utilized to travel to Lampedusa
4 pieces developed by CUCULA designers will be proven at the Cologne Fine Art fair, which runs from 18 November to 22 November 2015. All income from chair sales will go back in direction of supporting the undertaking.
Finnish furniture brand Artek put Mari’s Sedia chair into production in 2010. Consumers could buy pre-minimize pine boards, nails and guidelines and construct the object themselves.
Photography is by Verena Brüning, unless otherwise stated.
