Zanine, social innovation and wooden furniture

Abstract

José Zanine Caldas (1919-2001), self-taught Brazilian designer and architect, was responsible for not only developing iconic products and houses but also design processes with artisans he worked with. In the design area, his two most important productive moments have significant differences in relation to the technique used, the inclusion of native workers' technical knowledge in the production process, the target audience of the products produced and the concern with the environment. To demonstrate the development of Zanine's thinking, we will compare his work at two different times: the time when he was at the head of Fábrica Móveis Artístico Z, in the 1950s, using imported technology and unspecialized workers in the 1950s. The second is his later “Móveis-Denúncia” series realized in the south of Bahia, designed from building techniques from locals and woodworking non-electrical tools. The purpose of this article is to contribute to the discussion on designer’s role on managing the relation between a group of workers responsible for making the products, the design process and their building techniques from the methods applied by Zanine.

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