Inspired by her great grandfather – who started the first Afrikaans school in Paarl in 1882 – Amanda, our creative director, is producing a range of designer chairs from old public-school classroom chairs. What’s more, this project is helping less privileged communities in the process.
"We want to reflect on our past, the journeys we have taken and the memories from our youth."
The initiative is a collaboration with Joburg artist Elizabeth Pulles and uses old chairs from public schools. For each chair that it takes, Evolution purchases 1.5 chairs for these schools, and assists with the refurbishment of one classroom at a time. Each chair is part of a limited edition of 10 per design, but no two are exactly the same. Elizabeth’s fine-arts roots will not stand for ‘cookie-cutting’ production. The home-grown designs have been snapped up by Anthropologie in the US, and the shipment carrying the 16 different designs they ordered has landed on their shores.