The revolution in the production of objects is happening,
the product design is at service of the user-makers:
DO it with your hands!
The production-distribution-consumption chain is broken.
In order to feed mass consumption, wholesaler chains force manufacturers to lower costs. Production is displaced to countries where the workforce lives in degrading conditions for humanity. The quality of the materials is reduced. The raw materials and final product travel globally. The entire chain is dependent on fossil fuels.
I don't want to be a part of this!
Let's think local. Let' empower consumer-users: design to be easy to build, with basic tools and easy-to-find materials.
"DO it with your hands" are lessons for beginner user-builders.
The added value is the gratification obtained by doing something with our own hands. Thus, realize that we can be agents in doing many other things. In this sense, I designed a chair, a stool, a bench, a table, children's furniture pieces and others, using wood, pallets or brunches. These models are designed to be built by different age groups, with a handsaw, hammer, screwdriver or just paintbrush in periods between 45 minutes to 6 hours.
My name is Mariana Costa e Silva, I was born in 1980 in the Azores, the Portuguese Atlantic islands. My father is ceramic artists and has offered me since I was little the chance to try different techniques and materials. I grew up building toys, shelters, vehicles, tools and a little bit of everything. I didn't know the barrier of what can and cannot be done. At the age of 18 I came to Lisbon to study Product Design. I refined the relationship between form, function and industrial manufacture of the products.
I was distinguished in competitions: Young Designer ICEP, Limited Series Renault Clio, Experimenta Design, Formica Creativa, Massimo Dutti Design and Unicer / Serralves National Award.
I was a designer in the metalworking industry, monitored in a model and prototype workshop, designer in the interior and acoustic industry, and managed 3 own product brands: handbags, CNC furniture and handmade toys.
In 2018 I decided to break with establisheds consumption forms. Let's build instead of buying! DO it with your hands!
I designed furniture to equip community spaces, I taught children and adults how to build them with modest tools and materials. And like Enzo Mari in Autoprogettazione, I make free instructions with the aim of democratizing design. The objects are worth, not for their aesthetic boldness or sophisticated appearance, but for their ethics.
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