Companion Species
Location: Bangkok Design Week 2019
Type: Product Design
Status: open ended
Year: Jan 2019
Collaborators: Tikumporn Panichakan, Wasanthaya Theansuwan
Location: Bangkok Design Week 2019
Type: Product Design
Status: open ended
Year: Jan 2019
Collaborators: Tikumporn Panichakan, Wasanthaya Theansuwan
Companion Species is a series of furniture designed (mainly) for humans and cats. Surged from a general awareness on the limited choices that common pets furniture offers, it creates integrated pieces that are enjoyable for more-than-human users.
From a rocking chair made of scratching rope, that offers two “seats” for both companion species, whose “rocking” movement engages cats with its hanging toy-looking components, to la scratchable lamp post, it promotes the transition towards a more multispecies-oriented domestic space, where the relationship between human and non-human is developing towards new balances.
A specific attention is also placed to another series of contemporary companion species: special pieces are designed to smoothen the use of technological devices like laptops and tablets when rocking on the chair, creating a comfortable working environment while the cats are engaged in ludic activities.
The pieces of furniture are designed to be potentially self fabricated and eventually personalized.
For this reason, the materials are easy to find off the shelf, and the assemblage techniques are compatible to DIY skills.
The intention of creating a product that can be download, self-made and personalized, relates with a “vernacular” reflection towards the value of our objects: the possibility of personalization, of investing family-time (or extended-family-time) in the process of making, creates a specific affection to the object itself, that will extend its life span in times of fast consumption.