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Out with the new, in with the old.
One step backwards, two steps forward.
Once a year our local government organises “Hard Waste Day”. It is an opportunity to get rid of all those broken and useless things that are too big to fit in the regular garbage bin.
My neighbourhood might not be the most affluent, yet this is no impediment to piles of refuse building up in front of each house.
What these piles offer is a survey of industrial and furniture design in the environment of late stage capitalism. It’s not a pretty picture. The proliferation of mild steel and plastic laminated chipboard are surely the harbingers of the decline of Western Civilisation.
Form follows Function
While the function of some of this refuse seems obvious, we all know what a chair is for, it’s hard not to notice that the emphasis is on lifestyle over life itself.
Exercise equipment. Purpose specific furniture such as computer desks, tv cabinets, barstools, once new-fangled heating and cooling devices, bookcases. Yes, bookcases. Who needs one of those when no one reads books anymore?
Things made out of mild steel and plastic laminated chipboard have a habit of becoming irreparably damaged rather easily. This is by design. Buy cheap. Break quickly. Throw away. Buy the…
