Barack Obama, Benjamin Netanyahu and Hu Jintao walk into a bar.
A conference center, actually. But the question’s the same: which seat does each one choose?
The Copenhagen Climate Change Summit, or COP15, begins Dec. 7, and it’s entirely possible that any of those world leaders during the summit will sit in a chair with a sandbox, or a transparent wall, or flexible legs.
In an exhibition called “DIALOGUE - a chair that is up for negotiation” at the Cabinetmakers’ Autumn Exhibition in Copenhagen, young designers display the seats they provided to the world leaders tasked with making improvements on the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. But rather than simply craft seats as passive designs, the young designers produced 35 experimental chairs that comment on the dialogue, negotiation and collaboration occurring at the climate summit.
Komplot Design and Erik Jørgensen Møbelfabrik designed a red-and-black chair that angles sitters toward each other for discussion.
Claus Bjerre and ParadiseParkDesignStudios produced stools that are lashed together.
Peter Johansen & Ingeborg Stence Clausen worked with Malte Gormsen to create a set of loungers oriented around a sandbox. (not pictured)
Troels Grum-Schwensen and Aksel Kjergaard created a table set that requires both participants to cooperate.
The theme? If we’re going to “work together” to address climate change, we need to actually work together to achieve a solution.
The chairs are now on display in Copenhagen.
