Dutch studio Rietveld-Architecture-Art-Affordances (RAAAF) has unveiled its latest installation ‘Breaking Habits’ at the Mondriaan Fund for Visual Arts in Amsterdam. Breaking Habits envisages a domestic environment without chairs and couches, exploring a model of diagonal living through a system of flexible carpets.
Medical research has shown that sitting for prolonged periods of time is unhealthy. Breaking Habits therefore, aims to depart from our entrenched model of the living room by eliminating chairs and couches. Set inside a Dutch canal house, the exhibit hosts rolls of flexible carpet-like material suspended by metal cables. The user is half-floating, with the ‘magic carpet’ adapting and supporting the body. Different diagonals throughout the room encourage a more active lifestyle by changing position over time.
This physical thinking model materializes a philosophical world view and makes it tangible: a diagonal landscape of affordances scaffolds a most active lifestyle by inviting to change positions…will diagonal living become the new norm? – RAAAF
Breaking Habits is the latest chapter in RAAAF’s explorations of spatial dynamics. The exhibit has its roots in a collaborative effort between RAAAF and visual artist Barbara Visser entitled ‘The End of Sitting’, creating a chair-free workplace.
News via: RAAAF.
