Prompted by the forthcoming World Cup in South Africa, last year German magazine AIT decided to start up an initiative that would benefit the local inhabitants. For this initiative, the 'Charity Chair' project, a 100 architecture and interior design offices across Europe, including GROUP A, were asked to re-design the 'ONO' chair by Matthias Weber.

Yes, I think the design is good, a nice abstraction of the traditional Xhosa decorative markings and the  'black on white' also suggests interesting cultural connotations. I love the fact that the re-designed chairs will be sold in an auction in Berlin this autumn, and the revenues generated through this auction will support the the Guga S´Thebe cultural centre and AIDS orphanage in the Langa Township in Cape Town.

But, I am really dissapointed that this intiative did not include local talent, of which we have plenty. Just look here. I would really love to see this concept adopted locally, perhaps you can suggest a potential contender from our existing furniture designers and create competition to mash it up, so to speak.

Image of South-African girl with traditional make-up www.stanislavsolntsev.com