What Is ReCombinant Design?
And what are all these things? In 1999 I started to re-purpose cast off objects and create fun furnishings as a way of taking an active, personal role in resource conservation. ReCombinant Design is my term for making needed things while incorporating three means of conservation: recover, recombine, re-use. In the individual used, pre-stressed, discarded components that I assemble resides the “design DNA” of our society — and virtually every part has the potential to become another useful thing.
My re-combined creations reflect the Modern design period and props from sci-fi movies only because that’s an aesthetic I enjoy. I choose parts whose material and shapes resonate: aerodynamic, concentric circles, glass, tripods, wire frames like 3-D computer images, tubular, shiny, curving metal……
When re-combined as a unique functional item with a new purpose different from the original, the fusion — the ReCombinant Design — celebrates and highlights those components, drawing attention to their earlier use, their beauty — and their continuing value in filling a need.
– Christopher A. Brown
