Meenie Miney & Mo
Vienna, Austria
Stools & Bench
March, 2016
The 3 furniture pieces were made as part of a project conceived and organized by Mark Neuner from Mostlikely and Sudden Workshop.
It should be said from the start that we were not interested in the particular qualities of the material itself. We felt that wood, in this state, has been and will continue to be tested for all its structural and aesthetic potential. We used the material, constrained to dimensions provided by the workshop, as a vehicle to focus on other interests: 1. Proportion, 2. Mass, 3. Figure and 4. Color. The four figures (only 3 were built) were intended as variations on a single proportional scheme of alternating horizontal and vertical elements. Mass is simply created by total redundancy, which in turn provides structural stability: only by making the figures ‘fat’ can they be stable. The figures are purposely over-dimensioned. Not everything has to be elegant. We often find a sense of relief when confronted by awkward, in this case, ‘stumpy’, ‘thick’ things. Although current trends have rekindled an interest in ‘color-for-color’s-sake’, architects generally tend to avoid taking an aggressive position on color, often allowing the materiality to dictate the palette or playing a safe game of ‘shades of grey’. We love color! We love its subjectivity, its controversy, but mostly, its ability to create figures. The four figures have alternating color schemes on each face. Due to the construction technique the figures only have two faces. The color is meant to accentuate the awkwardness of the figures but also to help you forget that the objects are made of wood. Since we were mostly interested in the figural quality of the pieces and less in the potential of the material itself, it was clear from the beginning that the construction technique needed to be easy, stupid even. We used a single format (194 x 19 x 4000 mm) that only required 90 degree cuts. Once the first profile was made, to assemble the complete figure required only stacking that same profile twelve times and screwing it together.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Stools & Bench
Materials: Timber boards
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Deniz Önengüt