A ready-made stool from the small town of Bri-bri in Costa Rica’s Talamanca province. Three objects piled up to provide independent solutions for different design challenges: the can of paint is compression-resistant and provides a strong, broad base for support on the ground; the masonry unit, an element working in compression as well, distributes the body load on the circular top of the can and widens the surface to be occupied for sitting, too small if we consider the diameter of the can only; and the cardboard, which provides cushioning in an incremental, layered way, at the same time that protects from the sharp masonry unit edges that would otherwise hurt the user. The design is completed with the placement of the piece by a smooth wall that serves as backrest. Beyond the resourcefulness of an ad-hoc object like this, I am interested in the fact that such resourcefulness implies the separation of a unitary design problem (stool) into discrete sub-problems that are addressed separately depending on the objects at hand (in this case the problems are four: ground, height, cushioning and backrest). The same result could be achieved with other triads of objects combined in other ways, even varying the number from three to two or four. Design resourcefulness is a step-by-step linear process and it is unpredictable both in its sequence and its outcome. It is ephemeral and fully recyclable: the stool could go back to its components at any time.
