HOUSE-CHAIR
Design-Build Workshop
Detroit, Michigan
Build a chair, reframe a city! HOUSE-CHAIR reimagines the chair as a tool to teach Detroiters how to frame and finish their own Detroit Land Bank Association (DLBA) purchased home.
Designed for a "Build a Chair = Reframe a House" workshop, and building upon the history of architects using furniture to think through architecture, materiality, and form, the design incorporates tools, materials, and parts of American framing construction at a 1:1 scale as a way to teach basic framing and finishing skills of the floor, walls, and roof of a home through the chair's assembly.
Inspired by “teach a person to fish and provide the tools and resources for them to continue to do so,” HOUSE-CHAIR, through its assembly, is a learning experience that provides educational tools that can be carried, adapted, and applied to future architectural construction such as fixing up one's home. The workshop, hosted by Carhartt Workshop, a space available to Detroiters for community use, brought together folks rebuilding homes purchased via the DLBA across the city.