07. 25. 2006
Children's Highchair by Maartje Steenkamp
Even though the Children's Highchair was designed a few years ago by Maartje Steenkamp, designer of the new ChildChildChair that I posted last week, I thought it was worth a visit because it just won the international Red Dot Award in product design. The highchair is an interesting concept - part adaptable furniture that grows with your child and part conceptual art piece with a DIY participatory component.
In the artist's words:
"The bigger the child gets the less it needs the parents’ help. By sawing down the legs the parent makes a physical statement to help his child get more and more on his own feet. In the same sense it is a mark in time. The chair will never have it’s long legs back, the same way you cannot turn time; your child will never be small again. The phases of the chair are identical with different steps in the life of the child."
The chair is part of the Droog Collection, a curatorial collection of products from the Netherlands, and is actually for sale at select Droog dealers. And yes, a saw is included with the highchair.
Posted by Jenna
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furniture
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Comments
So much for hand-me-downs if you saw down the legs. I guess they are building in obsolence into their product so you will have to buy more. I personally don't believe in buying products that can't be reused and recycled for another family.
Posted by: Angela | July 25, 2006 11:00 AM
True, you can't hand down the high chair for your next child, however, the chair can be used for many many years because it adapts to your child as she/he grows. Might end up having the same lifespan, or even longer, than using a high chair for 2 years and then passing it on.
Posted by: jenna | July 25, 2006 11:06 AM
actually, once the child has his feet on the ground, after the child grows more, the legs would need to be lengthened again for the chair to be useful
Posted by: M | July 25, 2006 4:56 PM
Actually, you can saw the legs to accomodate growth. The chairs that I have now for my kid could accommodate her a few more years since her feet don't touch the ground, but she can still sit comfortably in it and get in and out herself. Hell, I even sit on those chairs sometimes when we're doing crafts.
Posted by: jenna | July 25, 2006 5:02 PM
Telescoping legs would have been interesting. Sawing the legs off is typical design masturbation.
Posted by: Scott | July 25, 2006 6:07 PM