NO-CHAIR-DESIGN Year 2012! from Eero Y on Vimeo.

It’s common knowledge that the building industry generates more than a third of the United States’ carbon footprint. A study recently conducted at UMASS-Amherst shows that new construction not only wastes more, but also produced 1/2 as many jobs as renovation work. There is perhaps no better illustration of the contradiction of “sustainable architecture” than a brand-new home built with the latest in green-powered technology: renovating an older structure would generate far less waste, but then who would notice your commitment to sustainability?

So yes, building new buildings is an incredibly wasteful practice. But as a country, and a profession, we are a bit addicted to it. The cult of personality surrounding modernism’s great architects does much to perpetuate the addiction — how many of these masters became famous for renovating old structures? — as an implicit value of the profession. Vanity design, as it were, is no more evident than in the chairs that some well-known architects turn out on a yearly basis.

Finnish designer/fabricators Ore.e Ref. hope to draw a attention to this reality with a little challenge for designers: Don’t design a single chair in 2012. Designing chairs “isn’t mandatory,” say the video’s stars, who were lauded on Fast.Co Design recently, “it comes through your educational system.” Instead, they suggest, work on renovating the chairs we already have! “Consider this the ultimate challenge for you to rethink how sustainable design should be manifested.” Word.

by Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan

posted in Video

tagged 2012, finland, helsinki design capital, no chair design year, Ore.e Ref, video

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