Tiny Furniture Isn’t Just for Dollhouses Anymore

“For artists and designers accustomed to considering both form and function, working in miniature affords outsize opportunities for experimentation.”

“To (Gustavo) Barroso, 27, (’18, BFA, Industrial Design) producing scaled-down models of his irreverent limited-edition and one-of-a-kind furniture is a way to reach a wider audience. “I can’t even afford the stuff I make,” says the designer, who graduated from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2019. He’s trying to bring the price of his Nickelodeon-inspired Green Slime chair down from $2,500 for the original to $250 for a small 3-D-printed version, and refers to the tiny, oozy chairs as toys or collectibles, hoping the approach will appeal to people who don’t consider themselves furniture buffs. “As soon as something has function, it becomes design, not art,” he says. “This isn’t about design. The chair was already solved. This is about art and acknowledging our own human redundancies and ridiculousness.””

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