Wheelbarrow Seat

February 24th, 2009

There’s something playful, and a little bit youthful about this seat by New Zealand designer Matt Moriarty.

The idea for ‘Baro’ came to Moriarty, strangely enough, when he was sitting in a wheelbarrow – “Ever sat in a wheelbarrow? It’s surprisingly comfortable,” he says.

Moriarty designed and built a prototype – with his last few uni student pennies – in two weeks to make the deadline for entries to the 2002 New Zealand Design Awards, where the design was highly commended in the product/furniture category.

In the six years since the initial design Moriarty has developed the prototype and it is now available to purchase.

“I’ve been developing the idea through numerous prototypes and materials and processes, trying to perfect some of the compromises I had to make on the initial design,” he says.

Moriarty takes actual wheelbarrow buckets and fits them with his own components to suit the chair design.

“The buckets are sourced locally and removed from the batch at a certain stage of the wheelbarrow manufacturer’s production line,” he says. “Why redesign or reinvent when something that already exists does the job?”

The padding and cushions of the ‘baro’ are made from water-resistant foam and the covers – made from upholstery fabric scraps – make them appear like broken concrete, adding to the quirky aesthetic.

The ‘baro’ is suitable for indoors and out and is shipped in component form with instructions and a tool to put it together (a little IKEA-style, but a very different result). The seat comes in a variety of colours.

Matt Moriarty
abro@baro.co.nz
www.baro.co.nz
+64 0 2188 0848

baro wheelbarrow seat 2