Maun Windsor Chair

Here is a chair that does more than just let you sit on it. This is a great example of how design can help all types of people.

With the North South Project, Canadian designer Patty Johnson is extending the positive effects of globalization to places that have yet to benefit. In the case of her Maun Windsor Chair (2004), that place is Botswana, Africa. To create the Maun, Johnson went to Peter Mabeo, the founder of the Mabeo Furniture factory in Gaborone, Botswana, with a design brief for a collection of high-quality wooden furniture that could be produced by hand. The Maun Windsor is a new interpretation of a classic American chair. Its Shaker-inspired clean lines meld with the abstract quality of African wooden sculpture, and the tight linear grain of the white oak further emphasizes the chair’s form. Handcrafted from wood that’s harvested from well-managed forests, it’s finished with an all-natural soap flake finish. The Maun’s design and manufacture is ecologically, aesthetically and culturally sustainable, while bringing long-term benefits to the local craftspeople and community. Made in Botswana.
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