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Pablo Mariano Among Western Living’s WL 25 Design Competition Winners
Pablo Mariano, pictured in his Vancouver studio, says his award-winning ∞ Chair was borne out of “a process of trying to make something with as few resources as possible.” (Photo by Jenn Xu)
Posted on April 04, 2024
The designer, ECU faculty member and alum developed his award-winning ∞ Chair during his studies in the ECU Master of Design program.
Designer and ECU faculty member Pablo Mariano (MDes 2022) has been named one of Western Living’s WL Design 25 Competition winners.
Pablo won the honour for his ∞ Chair, which was built using hand-bent steel rods coated in transparent beeswax, common cotton cord and birch dowels.
“Despite its limitless-sounding title, Pablo Mariano’s ∞ Chair is actually an exercise in restraint,” writes Western Living. “It’s a piece of furniture that proudly shares its own history.”
∞ Chair was developed as a thesis project during Pablo’s studies in the Master of Design program at ECU. Pablo says his goal was to explore how to work using simple processes and a limited range of tools.
“My experience through the Master’s program was trying to figure out ways I could generate more resources without needing a very fancy and highly equipped shop,” he says. “The ∞ Chair was a big part of that — a process of trying to make something with as few resources as possible.”
The ∞ Chair is “a piece of furniture that proudly shares its own history,” writes Western Living. (Photo courtesy Pablo Mariano)
“Limitations can be a creative device,” says Pablo. (Photo by Jenn Xu)
Partly, this decision can be traced to Pablo’s roots as a woodworker in Argentina. He’d initially studied music, earning a degree in composition. But because he couldn’t afford to purchase the guitars he coveted, he decided to learn how to make them himself.
Eventually, his woodworking skills earned him commissions for designing and building furniture. When an economic downturn forced him to shut his shop, Pablo recalls questioning whether he could continue working without access to its tools and materials.
He applied to the ECU Master of Design program, envisioning an opportunity to experiment with digital fabrication and other high-tech processes. But Covid struck soon after, leaving Pablo working remotely with little access to anything aside from hand tools.
Rather than admitting defeat, Pablo quickly recognized the creative possibilities of these constraints.
“Limitations can be a creative device,” he says. “I asked, ‘How can I build something around a single material or process, like a gesture or a specific type of joint? By grabbing the smallest element possible to start building?’”
“How can I build something around a single material or process? By grabbing the smallest element possible to start building?” Pablo asks. (Photo by Jenn Xu)
Pablo’s roots as a woodworker begin in Argentina, where he taught himself to build the guitars he wouldn't otherwise be able to afford. (Photo by Jenn Xu)
Pablo found an answer in embracing repetition. For instance, the ∞ Chair employs the gesture of looping steel rods around one another.
“It’s just making that loop once, twice and then 380 times or something like that,” he says. “It looks complex, or maybe baroque or ornamental, but in the end it’s very, very simple.”
He soon realized this “new” way of working could be traced back to the conditions under which he’d emerged as a designer in Argentina.
“This would be pretty common,” he says of his home country. “There are good times and bad times. Getting resourceful is something you do on a daily basis.”
He says this revelation has infused his current practice with renewed appreciation for the joy that comes from being able to choose how one wishes to work.
“Being able to say, ‘I actually want to create challenges for myself instead of having no choice but to work under these constraints’ — there’s a lot of privilege in that, and I think it’s wise to keep that in perspective.”
These discoveries came “really because of going through that experience in the Master’s program,” he adds. “Having to figure new ways of making things, reflecting a lot, reading and being exposed to people working in different ways and coming from different places was absolutely a game-changer. It was very enlightening.”
“Being able to create challenges for myself instead of having no choice but to work under these constraints — there’s a lot of privilege in that,” Pablo says. (Photo by Jenn Xu)
Pablo now has his own shop in downtown Vancouver. He continues to work almost entirely with hand tools on a variety of wood- and metalworking projects. Visitors are welcome by appointment.
Visit Pablo online for contact info and follow him on Instagram to keep up with his work. Pablo will also be running workshops at his shop in the near future via Dwelling Impressions, a project he runs along with his wife, Agustina García del Río. Follow them on Instagram for details.
Visit ECU online to learn more about studying in the Master of Design program at Emily Carr.