Join us on Thursday, July 24, at 6:00 pm for the opening reception of 'The Chair Project 2007-2024: a Retrospective', a survey of student work from Professor Elizabeth English's 3b and 4b design-build chair course.
The Chair Project 2007-2024: A Retrospective celebrates nearly two decades of exploration, creativity, and craftsmanship by students in Professor Elizabeth English’s chair design-build course.
The chair, as both a functional necessity and a cultural artifact, becomes a lens through which students examine the fundamentals of architecture: structure, material, scale, and human and spatial interactions. Students select “clients” to serve as creative inspirations for the folding or reconfigurable wooden chairs that they design, refine, construct and analyze during the term. This retrospective exhibition not only documents the pedagogical legacy of the course but also highlights the chair’s enduring role as a testing-ground for architectural ideas.
Visitors are invited to engage with the chairs not only visually and physically but also conceptually, considering how each design challenges assumptions about comfort, form, efficiency, delight, and the rituals of daily life.