People / Reign Charbit
I’m a ‘designer’ and ‘teacher’, and I like to think of my approach as a kind of bricolage – using improvisation and ingenuity with reclaimed, repaired, or regenerative materials. I design all types of objects: tools, chairs, exhibitions, public infrastructure, often beginning with ‘archetypes’ for their simplicity and pragmatism, then trying to nudge that form or function just enough from what we expect to raise questions. I enjoy sleights-of-hand and double-takes! I research incessantly, discovering signs and stories in the built environment in order to suggest new significations and possibilities. I hope my teaching encourages similar observation, tangential thought, and hands-on making.
A Seat at the Table: Chair 25
Normally, steel triangle wheel clamps are used by local authorities and on-street clamping contractors to deter, restrict and punish. This clamp has been reimagined into a stool – instead of telling people where not to be, it can now reclaim public space, and perhaps even begin to ask questions about our made environment… how does it all work? How might it work better (and for whom)?