Katerina Kamprani is not your typical designer. Where others see form and function, she sees chaos and art.
The Athens-based architect’s latest project, called The Uncomfortable, takes everyday objects and redesigns them – making them more difficult to use.
The collection of “deliberately inconvenient everyday objects” includes a concrete umbrella and a chain-handled fork.
The idea behind The Uncomfortable was sparked while she was in a postgraduate course in design and interactive studies. “I learned a lot about the term user experience, which refers to the overall experience of a person using a product, especially in terms of how easy or pleasing it is to use,” she told Architectural Digest.
“This inspired me to do exactly the opposite. I just thought it was funny to think in an unconventional way and I was amazed by how difficult it was to deconstruct everyday objects in my mind!”
Initially, her designs were envisioned as 3D renderings, but then she decided to breathe life into them and developed prototypes.
But during the production process, Kamprani encountered a few difficulties, adding that some objects were too difficult or expensive to reproduce.
She does also admit that she has her favourites, including the watering can: “Although it happened unintentionally, it seems to me like this watering can has a personality of its own, and looks back on itself, like an introvert watering can.”
