2015
author
Olga Szymańska (PL)
title
Church Pew
degree
B.A. project
e-mail
school
Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw
supervisor
Prof. Michał Stefanowski
Designing sacred spaces is a legitimate topic in design, although it is mostly architects who deal with these buildings on the whole. Designers more often use sacred imagery in various conceptual projects. This designer has redesigned pews in a church. Her work was inspired by ergonomics and her aim was to design a functional object into a sacred space – and she succeeded. The result is an appropriate conversion of the church pew. The drawback is that the designer focused purely on function, and did not work with the subject as a concept, which, in our opinion, offers a broader range of solutions. The subject could be shifted into another context, taking on new aesthetic values (e.g. into an apartment, as interior furniture). The “church pew” was the most hotly discussed of all the participating designs, which only worked in its favor. Besides its function, a product can play another role: it can spark emotions, such as uncertainty and tension, as this work demonstrated.