The Chair Project

Carol Hickey, professor of architectural design at F&M, teaches a studio every Spring, and I've had the pleasure of serving as a regular guest critic. The culminating project for the class is a chair. And this year, the assignment was a child chair. As part of the critic process, the students carried their life-size cardboard chairs to the daycare affiliated with F&M and had three sets of children evaluate the designs by simply using them.

This was an amazing experience. As you can imagine, both kids, students and faculty had a fabulous time. Some chairs did not make it through the day and many experienced significant "modifications." Many thanks to the staff of College Hill Children's Center. The building itself is a spectacular ca. 1910 brick factory renovated in 2008. I'll have more to say about that in a later posting, stay tuned for a Lancaster installment of steel beam vernacular.

I made quick sketches of the 16 chairs (left). Congratulations to the students for completing their studio semester and allowing the kids to test their designs. I had fun spending my day in daycare.