Researching Luís Barragán´s furniture I came across a web site that sells miniature replicas of famous furniture pieces. For $450 one can get a 1:6 replica of one of Barragán´s butacas, roughly 12 x 10 x 14 cm. (4.7 x 4 x 5.5 in.). Presented as a collector’s item, the specs read that each miniature model takes an average of five hours of careful manual work. Those of us used to model making as a design tool could easily understand the value of a five-hour model making session. But using five hours to make a replica of a historic piece -even if it is a gorgeous armchair like Barragán´s- seems harder to understand. Perhaps I have become severely intolerant to non-necessary objects, not only for environmental reasons but, most importantly, for existential reasons. A replica is a promise of an object, in the same way that a good set of images is a substitute of an experience. Short of having the butaca in my living room, or sitting on it in Barragán’s house, I would be content just admiring the piece in a library book or an online catalog (without spending a dime). A 1:6 study of a furniture piece is absolutely necessary when one is creating a new object, but it becomes a bit decadent when one is recreating an object that somebody else created in 1945. Imagine if those five hours of careful manual labor would be employed in creative, forward-looking work.
