When we first approached Alfréd by University of Óbuda student Szebedy Vajk at 360 Design during Budapest Design Week 2024 we interpreted it as an abstracted giraffe.
It certainly wouldn't be the first time an animal had served as the basis for a piece of furniture design. Indeed shortly after meeting Alfréd we met the giraffe-esque library ladder 3½ by vondingen at Grassimesse Leipzig. Others would at this point speak of a t**** towards Giraffidae inspired design, we speak of two giraffes that arose independently of one another and for very different reasons.
Although the giraffe is a mighty fine basis for a piece of furniture design: its long neck offering a number of possible options, options which on account of the angle of incline inherently results in an efficient use of space. An efficiency of space use complimented by a giraffe's relatively compact body which forces you to create an appropriately compact work, to pack a lot of functional and artistic muscle, nerves and bones into a minimum of space, and thus creating from one of the largest land mammals a reduced, unobtrusive object of the type required in contemporary apartments. And that is, very briefly, what Alfréd offers: a variety of options in an object that requires a lot less space than the sum of its variety of options.
Having conversed with Alfréd, and very much enjoying our chat, and keen to learn more about Vajk and his Alfréd, we turned to the internet. And found nothing. Save that on the 360 Design website where it states of Alfréd: "the design of this furniture was inspired by the relationship between a well-known hero and his loyal sidekick".
But most unhelpfully doesn't say whom. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Visually the best fit is without question Don Quixote and Sancho Panza: a squat figure on a low horse/donkey with its lance raised, poised, should an errant windmill appear on the horizon. A fit that becomes almost perfect when one reads that "the goal of his design was to create a piece of furniture that would help tidy up a messy room", an unending, eternal, task of Quixotian enormity and foolhardiness. Why would you begin such a task? But a Quixotian task Alfréd, having unwisely accepted, is, apparently we'll placed to meet: on and within the main body one finds storage space for both those objects that often from necessity, often from laziness, one stores for longer periods without ever using, and also those things that are more or less in continual use and thus must be more placed in easy reach than stored; the neck/lance with its protrusions of varying lengths provides space for hanging things on and over, whereby clothes are the obvious option, but by no means the only; while the flat upper surface of the body, which may or not be as with the back of an actual giraffe, provides a ready surface for an impromptu notebook/tablet workstation, that thing we'll all be needing in our near-future post-desk reality.
It could however be Phileas Fogg und Passepartout: there is a level of inventiveness and spontaneity implicit in achieving an efficient use that is very much akin to what one would need if you were to successfully circumnavigate the globe in 80 days while being pursued by Scotland Yard.
Or Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson: a carefully study, forensic investigation and analytical questioning of the puzzle to be solved clearly went in to approaching the solution.
Or Tintin and Snowy. Because shouldn't everything in life be Tintin and Snowy?
Or are we, like Snowy having followed a false trail laid by some dastardly Belgian rogue, barking up the wrong tree.
Is Alfréd the hero, and we all the sidekick?
Alfréd certainly has all the hallmarks of a hero: practical, reliable, durable, dependable, flexible, alert, devoid of an ego but self-assured in all that they do.
And us?
As any fule kno, sidekicks come in many types: those, for example, that are that a positive aid to and extension of the hero, those that through pure good fortune see their many mistakes and errors support the hero, or those that more hinder than help the hero in their heroic activities, but are an important emotional support for the hero, provide a necessary balance.
Similarly our relationship with furniture, a relationship that is also defined by us in all our human frailties, inconsistencies and desires: a furniture object will quietly get on with its job, how well it can achieve that and what the long term consequences are, come down to us.
Alfréd through it's various functional aspects provides options for maintaining order, but maintaining that order is down to us: Do we augment Alfréd, get lucky with Alfréd or counteract Alfréd? What is our relationship to Alfréd? And can that relationship, can Alfréd, help us change? Can Alfréd help us appreciate the need for change? Can a Hungarian giraffe help us appreciate the need to not just tidy a messy room, but to avoid the creation of a messy room? Is a didactic element not an important part in any and every hero/sidekick relationship.
Or perhaps more accurately, an important part of the telling of any hero/sidekick relationship, of the reading of any hero/sidekick relationship.
Whereby we couldn't help thinking: "what if it was a modular giraffe"?
What if it wasn't an object but a system that could be altered, expanded, reduced, rebuilt, re-imagined? Would that be better? ¿Is modular not always better? And does that not lead to a deepening of the hero/sidekick relationship, reinforce the responsibility and role of the sidekick to the flow of the narrative, underscore that it's not just about the hero, that the sidekick is crucial, and thereby increase the likelihood of a didactic functionality?
Or at least increase the chance of a little less mess.
More information on Szebedy Vajk and Alfréd can be found at... we no kno. We can find nothing online. Sorry!! Should that change, we will update.
360 Design and Budapest Design Week have now ended. Further information on 360 Design can be found at https://360dbp.com, further information on Budapest Design Week at https://hfda.hu
