Stool 60 is one of the most iconic stools of the 20th century. Produced by Artek, its design is simple and beautiful. For 100 days starting June 23, 2020, DDAA LAB produced 100 ideas for altering the Stool 60. The Hackability of the Stool (Possibility of modifying the stool) is a project that adds diverse, niche, and modest functions to the original work, which have been cut out in the process of designing. In this interview, we talked with Daisuke Motogi on circular processes, the excess of modernism and how decentralised standardisation can inform product design in the 21st Century.

The project was part of Dropcity Convention 2023, winner of the public call Festival Architettura - 2nd edition, promoted by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture.

KOOZ What drew your interest to the Artek 60 stool and the research project Hackability of the Stool?

DM The Hackability of the Stool project was inspired by our involvement in creating a space for Mistletoe, a community for collective impact initiatives founded by Taizo Son. The space, MISTLETOE OF TOKYO (MOT), was envisioned as a hub for various activities undertaken by startups and related communities with the support of Mistletoe. The concept that we, DDAA, proposed for MOT was a "beta-version space that retains the state of incompleteness." A space design of a typical project involves a one-way process of "design → production → completion → use." In creating MOT, however, we adopted a circular process that was never completed: the process is "design → production→ use → verification → design → production...." In other words, we decided to keep ourselves continuously involved in the metabolism of space.

On one occasion, we were asked to provide about 150 stools for visitors attending a large-scale event to be held at MOT. Since MOT is not a space dedicated to a specific function, newly purchased items, whether stools or fixtures, will be used in various situations thereafter. As for the stools, they are adaptable to various uses, including workshops, events, lectures, and creative activities. Therefore, we decided to invite the communities who would actually use the stools to a workshop where we would discuss what a stool is and identify what functions would be needed in what situations.

During the workshop, a wide variety of requests and ideas for functions were expressed.

If all of these requests and ideas were consolidated into a single form, it would become an excessively multifunctional stool—like a multipurpose knife. In the first place, many masterpieces of stools have already been created, and we wondered whether there was any need to design more new ones. Instead, we felt it would be more efficient to adapt existing products, as had been attempted in other DDAA projects in the past. As we thought about this, we came up with the idea of adding necessary functions to an existing stool.

Once we had a clear picture of what we wanted to do, we immediately began our research of a stool to modify at our research laboratory DDAA LAB, which aims to promote social change through architectural thinking. Ultimately, we chose the "Stool 60," a masterpiece designed in 1933 by Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, one of the greatest architects of the 20th century, for the following reasons:

・Wooden, and easy to modify.

・Stackable, and easy to store even if the number of the item increases.

・The straightforward design makes it easy to identify the modifications made.

・Many inexpensive imitation products are available, making it easy to conduct case studies and experiments.

For a space whose function changes every day, we came up with a simple stool with attachment parts to make the furniture adaptable to various functions. This isn’t a community with a single attribute but a space for a startup community, so the way it is used changes. We first created 10 ideas for such a space and saw the potential in them. So we switched this project from client work to research and continued.

KOOZ Hackability of the Stool instantly brings to mind the project for 100 chairs developed by Martino Gamper. Over a period of about two years, the designer systematically retrieved abandoned chairs found in the streets of London to subsequently, during one hundred days, reconfigure the design of each one in an attempt to transform its character and/or functionality.Your project starts from the Artek stool to then add diverse, niche, and modest functions which have been cut out in the process of designing. What informed these diverse functions which were attributed to the original product?

DM This project is indeed influenced by Martino Gamper's project. There are more than 300 sketches of ideas, but we chose to create 100 chairs because it is inspired by "100 Chairs in 100 Days" (2007.)

Several other books have strongly influenced the thinking behind this project. One is the picture book Koppu (Fukuinkan Shoten Publishers, Inc., 1976), which shows how an ordinary cup can be seen as many different things when viewed from different angles. And TTP (MACK, 2018), a collection of photographs taken in Leipzig, Germany, from a fixed point of view: a ping-pong table in a park, seen from the window of the dormitory room, where the author, Hayahisa Tomiyasu, lived at the time. Just as a cup does not only hold drinks, but can also be used as a vase to arrange flowers, an insect cage to catch insects, or a lens if it's filled with water, a ping-pong table in the park is used for various purposes: a table, a sunshade for children, as a yoga and stretching apparatus.

KOOZ What are, in your opinion, the most successful outcomes? Why?

DM One of the outcomes of this project is that we were able to gain a perspective on the highly finished Stool 60 in order to view it as unfinished. The concept of completion is also ambiguous. It may be possible to say that "completed" is merely a concept that captures things at a certain fixed point. If so, it should be possible to redefine what is thought to be already completed as an unfinished product, in other words “material.”

A further perspective is the question of whether it is possible to design a space or product that encourages people to engage in a variety of activities, in other words, a "good field". Thus, the most important outcome from this project is the opportunity to keep thinking, many themes to investigate next and many ideas for the next specific research.

KOOZ To what extent is the project a research and commentary of the process of mass-production across our product industry?

DM We researched the philosophy of Aalto and imitations of Stool 60 currently on the market. We learned that Stool 60 was not Aalto's ultimate goal, but rather the first step towards a grand vision. As a designer and architect, Aalto designed products and spaces on an equal footing. It was necessary to use the same units if he wanted to design everything from furniture to architecture with the same modules and rules. The L-legs, which comprise the legs of Stool 60 and which Aalto called the "little sister of columns in architecture," probably had been conceived in this context.

The first product to apply this technique was the Stool 60. From Aalto's monographs and old Artek catalogues, we learned that he did many studies on new developments using L-legs, such as stools, tables, and cabinets that can store items under the top, as well as the currently available products including stacking tables. They were ambitiously exploring the possibilities of expanding the application range of the L-leg.

While Stool 60 is Aalto's masterpiece, what he saw beyond it was the potential of L-legs as a system. Ultimately, his idea was to modularize the parts of the L-leg into several types and apply them to all kinds of architectural details. We may be able to apply the idea of L-legs, which can be mass-produced and applied to various types of furniture, to buildings to create more comfortable homes. We can better understand Aalto's expectations for the potential of L-legs by referring to the concept of "decentralised standardisation" of architectural production.

"The purpose of architectural standardisation is not to produce types, but instead to create variety and richness which could, in the ideal case, be compared with nature's unlimited capacity to produce variation."¹

As mentioned earlier, the goal of efficient mass production was certainly important to Aalto, but at the same time, he was highly critical of the overly rationalistic approach.

The decentralised standardisation is about creating diversity. In a capitalist society, products that spread quickly are, to put it rather harshly, "convenient, profitable, common, and fun."As a result, products that are convenient, inexpensive, and likely to attract people's attention naturally circulate in large quantities. The production cost per unit goes down rapidly as more and more convenient and inexpensive products are sold, making it possible to produce in even greater quantities. As this cycle continues, uniformity through mass production will progressively increase. Decentralised standardisation is, in a sense, an alternative to this uniformity. The idea is to recognise diverse, personal and niche needs. While keeping the convenient and profitable element, which is important for sustainability, is there a way to include other factors such as regional and individual differences?

KOOZ How does the project challenge the idea of modernism as embedded in the stool?

DM There are two major elements of successful modernist product design:

One is to create something that is in high demand by the people. This means to create something that is simple and versatile, rather than something unique. This leads to the idea of universal mass production. The other is to make products at low cost. There are two ways to achieve this: mass production to lower the unit cost and produce easily. The method of lowering the unit price per item by mass production is based on the premise that everyone consumes the same product in large quantities, and is therefore wasteful. I agree with aiming for generality in new fields, but I wonder if it is necessary to create something more universal in the age of abundance.

Furthermore, we have realised there are two new ways to make something easy. One is to make it in a short time without complicated processing and another one to reduce the working time and material costs by considering the products that already exist in the market as materials. For example, if you need something round and thin, you would normally use NC machining or cut with scissors to make a round object. But there is also the option of going out and buying something round and thin that is already there, for example, a coaster. Before producing, we research coasters in circulation and reuse as materials those that seem to fit our requirements. In today's highly industrialised day, most things already exist on the market, so it is possible to look for a mass-produced product with a different perspective on how to use it for a purpose other than the original.

A more effective approach might be to use objects and contexts that already exist in the area. When we create as easily as possible, it is important to have a perspective to rethink the finished product as a material again.

KOOZ How and in what ways has the project informed your practice as a designer?

DM What influenced the activities of DDAA on this project was the perspective of rethinking a universally made product as a material. The interest of DDAA continues to the question whether it is possible to create a highly hackable product or platform like the Stool 60.

High hackability means that the space and products have a high tolerance for diversity. I believe that design should include the possibility of noise and unexpected events occurring within the space after it leaves the hands of the architects and designers. While we aim to create spaces with powerful concepts, we are also attracted to the various kinds of noise, and we want to design without somehow eliminating it.

KOOZ To what extent can this approach of “hacking” be applied across scales and typologies?

DM What we have learned from this project is that the hacking approach, or the accumulation of creating easily, can generate as many as 330 different ideas. Of course, the seed of a sustainable idea can be found by trying a lot of simple things. Instead of deciding on one concept and then doing a large development or major construction project to get there, we can try out really useful ideas on a small scale. The bottom-up study method is extremely common sense for software projects. The approach of first releasing and using a beta version to identify and solve problems early on can be applied to a scale like a city. Since mass production and universal design abound widely, from software to hardware, from products to cities, the approach of hacking and creating small, simple products based on what already exists, and then continuing to validate and update them, is applicable at any scale.

Bio

Daisuke Motogi is founder of DDAA and DDAA LAB / Member of a creative association CEKAI / Manager of shared space Happa / Part-time lecturer at Tokyo University of the Arts. Born in Saitama, Japan in 1981. After graduating from Musashino Art University in 2004, he joined to Schemata Architects. In 2010, he established his own architectural and design practice DDAA. In 2019, he established R&D organization DDAA LAB with Mistletoe Inc.; a Collective Impact Community that advocates a new style of business through startup support, to solve social challenges. In 2021, he participated in the Japan Pavilion at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition - Venice Biennale.

Federica Zambeletti is the founder and managing director of KoozArch. She is an architect, researcher and digital curator whose interests lie at the intersection between art, architecture and regenerative practices. In 2015 Federica founded KoozArch with the ambition of creating a space where to research, explore and discuss architecture beyond the limits of its built form. Parallel to her work at KoozArch, Federica is Architect at the architecture studio UNA and researcher at the non-profit agency for change UNLESS where she is project manager of the research "Antarctic Resolution". Federica is an Architectural Association School of Architecture in London alumni.