Damien Cresp, オ Chair (STUDENT 2022)

Student:

Tertiary

Name of school or tertiary institution, and name of woodworking teacher (if you have one):

The University of Melbourne

When we move house, how do we take our domesticity with us? Some of it is cheap, lives fast, dies early, and then becomes waste. Longer living, solid furniture can be cumbersome and sluggish to move. The オ (pronounced ‘o’ like in ‘origami’) Chair responds to this very specific requirement of fine furniture with built in transience - it is designed without screws or fixings or a reliance on adhesives, and, with a few taps on the wedge joints, can be dismantled and packed down to move as we do. From its conception, the chair realises its fate. As elements of the chair degrade over its lifespan, they can be independently replaced, rather than an entire piece of furniture going to landfill. Afterwards, individual parts can conceivably be re-ordered, retrofitted, and amended onto the chair. The design relies on the density of the Blackbutt eucalyptus timber, grown in Australia, for its strength and cantilever, and seeks to represent timbers from home rather than overseas. The name オ (‘o’) is derived from the joinery in the project having its conceptual ancestry in Japanese timber crafts, and is (hopefully) the noise made when one first rests into the seat.

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