A Tool for Togetherness: A Chat with Tomek Rygalik

tomek_rygalik_fot._monika_olszewska_m.jpg, default, Tomek Rygalik, photo: Monika Olszewska, A Tool for Togetherness: A Chat with Tomek Rygalik

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Tomek Rygalik, head of Rygalik Studio and one of Poland’s most famous designers, tells us about the role of the round table in culture, the durability of objects, and the designer’s responsibility to facilitate… meetings.

Ania Cymer: At the end of 2020, an installation you designed will be set up next to the Holon Design Museum in Israel, one of the most well-known institutions of its kind in the world. It will be functional in form, as it’s supposed to encourage people to meet. Can you tell us more?

Tomek Rygalik: The design draws from many years of my research and observations, both personal and professional. For years, I’ve been particularly interested in designing various seats and tables as they help people face each other: to meet, talk and exchange thoughts. Most of the designs I’ve completed over my 20+ years of work were created with the goal of building interpersonal relationships.

For instance, we made Poland’s first so-called ‘common table’ at the Warsaw-based Charlotte bistro – a piece of furniture that brings strangers together. It’s been there for over 10 years and it’s still said to have revolutionised the culture of being together, proving that you can – and you should – sit at a common table with people you don’t know. Our thoughts were similar in 2011 when we designed meeting places for the Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The idea in that case was to use furniture to create spaces that would facilitate bilateral or multilateral meetings concerning vital European issues.

Our Holon project stems from all these experiences and reflections. We dubbed it ‘a tool for togetherness’. It’s a social project, a space for creating local or informal communities. Our designs are usually set in a certain context, to which we refer. We compromise and have to find a common ground between our vision and numerous conditions, such as feasibility, profitability and our clients’ guidelines. The Holon project is a bit different. We were able to work outside of a specific context and could create a symbolic object. This project is more about culture than product, and it’s not an answer to any specific need of a target group or a particular person. It’s intended for everyone and it refers to one of our fundamental needs, i.e. the need to be together, which is important for all humankind.

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Common table at the Charlotte Bistro in Warsaw, designed by Studio Rygalik, photo: Ernest Wińczyk

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AC: Is this why this special seat is going to be round?

TR: This form is deeply rooted in our culture and has existed since prehistoric gatherings by the fire, all the way to the Round Table, which was so crucial for Polish history and whose shape enabled an egalitarian meeting where everyone was equal.

When it comes to Holon, there will be two seats. The smaller one will be placed in a public space, in a quiet place under the trees next to the sidewalk. As it will be made of metal, it will be durable, resistant, environmentally friendly, and fully recyclable. The larger seat will be placed near the museum and will create an attractive gathering place. This one can’t be made of metal, as it would heat up too quickly in the scorching Israeli weather. At first, we had considered building it out of wood, but then we began thinking about recycled plastic. Through this project, we also want to draw attention to the benefits of a circular economy, the conscious choice of materials, sustainable development, and careful consumption. After all, these issues are crucial for building future communities.

Both will be highly durable. And not just to protect them against vandalism. I believe durability is the main key to sustainable development. Of course, waste should be recycled and materials should be reused, but the best thing we can do for the planet is to use things for longer periods of time and to pass on important material culture from generation to generation. Studio Rygalik has been calling for this and promoting this approach for years. People must become aware that it’s better to have fewer things but of better quality – to value things that will last many years over buying new ones when the opportunity arises.

AC: There’s certainly a difference between designing a chair or a table for a particular user and designing furniture for public space to be used by various people.

TR: Most of our designs are intended for public spaces, even in the case of chairs or tables. From day one, we have also worked on street/urban furniture and various hybrids. When it comes to the origins of our circles, in 2014 we carried out workshops at the Domaine de Boisbuchet cultural and design centre in France. Located among meadows and fields, the centre is a place where students and designers from all over the world meet to take part in workshops and work on non-standard architecture and design projects. This is where we created a sort of ‘integrating seating’ for the first time. It was a result of a workshop during which we developed the optimal form for such an object. Its nature was slightly different as it stood in the middle of a grassy field. The wooden seat had the unusual form of a round ‘pier’ in the grass. You could lie down on it, relax, smell herbs, sit, and talk. In its centre was a bowl carved out of a tree trunk. It made it possible to share a meal together, possibly made out of local greens. So, it was more of a leisure object, a place for contemplating nature as well as being close to both other people and nature.

It was there, during the workshop at Domaine de Boisbuchet, that the idea of building special community spaces dawned on me. I was delighted by the energy surrounding our circular seat. I noticed that an object as simple as this ‘round bench’ had the power to make everyone face each other – it changed the way people talked to each other, creating some kind of intimacy, streamlining their focus, as well as fostering the feeling of egalitarianism. We try to put the potential of such objects to use.

In 2019, we designed an experimental prototype for a school complex in Szczekociny, in cooperation with the EFC Foundation. The school lacked the space for less formal get-togethers that would enable integration and freedom at the same time. We were asked to take part in a joint effort aimed at creating a space that would facilitate meetings. First, we conducted a workshop to identify the students’ needs and expectations. As a result, we designed round metal benches, which were then placed all around the school. It was the perfect place for students to read, hang out and gossip freely.

We’re still working on different variations of these seats, adapting them to the needs of individual communities, and most of all we want to deliver them to where they’re needed. That is why we came up with the following formula: for every circular seat someone orders, we give another one to a community in need. Thanks to the cooperation and goodwill of those who participate in this process, the benches can arrive at locations which lack awareness or means to create places for integration.

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The bench at Domaine de Boisbuchet, designed by Studio Rygalik, photo: Carlo Cialli

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AC: The foundation you started is also building a centre in Sobole. It’s also aimed at connecting people and facilitating cooperation.

TR: A while ago, we felt it was time to integrate all of our experiences, ideas, thoughts and values, and share them with others who might find them inspiring. And so, together with Gosia Rygalik, we established our foundation and the ‘creative campus’ in Sobole, a village on the border of the Mazovian and Lublin voivodeships. It’s a centre for creativity surrounded by the beauty of nature (influencing pro-ecological attitudes in design!), where one can create an entirely new future using state-of-the-art tools for testing, prototyping, and designing.

Our goal is to support enthusiasm, zeal, creativity, and talent, providing conditions for the emergence of innovative ideas and co-operation among representatives of various disciplines and specialisations. We combine educational as well as research and developmental activities, and we’re currently building a new facility with workshop spaces, there’s a summer design school, plus there are opportunities for a creative residency and working alongside people from responsible businesses. The centre in Sobole is also about meeting, bringing together people from various industries and fields, and giving them a chance to meet and cooperate.

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The bench in Szczekociny, designed by Studio Rygalik, photo: courtesy of Studio Rygalik

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AC: No one doubts the importance and necessity of human contact. However, beginning a few months ago, we faced a phenomenon which made meetings literally harmful and even resulted in them being temporarily forbidden. How has your project evolved during this global pandemic? Does it still make sense in this day and age, when we are supposed to maintain distance from each other?

TR: There will always be a need for meeting with each other – that’s not something you can suppress. The lockdown showed, in no uncertain terms, how quickly we began to miss it! As a result, our project has become a symbol of the power of meeting, for which one must always have a place in their life, with or without masks. Depending on the situation, whether we’re talking about a vaccine, recurring waves of the pandemic, or subsequent viruses – as this most likely isn’t the last situation like this we’ll experience in our lifetime – we need to moderate our time together as well as react and adapt to different circumstances, as we will never stop needing it. A good example here is the development of new technologies with the simultaneous disappearance of numerous skills in children.

The growth of social media has led to the thinking that all of social life can go virtual, thus making in-person meetings no longer necessary. Though social media can be used for numerous events, they can’t replace real-world interactions involving the need for intimacy, direct, physical relationships, body language, and feeling one another.

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The Forty restaurant, Warsaw, designed by Studio Rygalik, photo: courtesy of Chors

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AC: When it comes to these designs, how important is the cultural environment in which they are developed? France, Szczekociny, Israel… after all, people live a bit differently in each of these places. Is that of significance?

TR: The idea of meeting in a circle exists in almost every culture, it’s common to most people and has been common for a very long time, ever since the age of cavemen! Over the centuries, it has seen many manifestations in different parts of the world. The universal nature of this phenomenon was well demonstrated by the construction of the round bench in Domaine de Boisbuchet. It involved young people from virtually every corner of the world, including the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Africa, coming from various communities, both progressive and very traditional. Everyone understood and ‘felt’ this code, this language.

We are, of course, aware of the nuances that may cause different reactions to our seat. Perhaps some people will be shy about being part of such a predetermined relationship with others. After all, one will first have to make a symbolic ‘entrance’ as the seat is shaped like a bagel. Although it will be possible to sit there with your face turned outward, I’m sure people will soon start turning towards each other. The same thing happened years ago at the Charlotte bistro table. Initially, we weren’t sure at all how our idea of a large common table was going to play out, but it worked instantly. Under different circumstances, it would have been hard to just sit next to a stranger. However, when we’re already at the same table, the boundaries are minimised and contact is established basically on its own, it’s natural.

Culture is evolving quite rapidly. Polish cities have livened up significantly over the last decade as we’ve started to spend time outside our homes and among people.

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The bench in Domaine de Boisbuchet, designed by Studio Rygalik, photo: Carlo Cialli

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AC: To what extent can such social change be facilitated by designers? Can city life be activated through design?

TR: Design is the best tool for it! The designer’s role is to observe, analyse places or situations, and support them with appropriate solutions. That’s the core of our work. I remember living in London, around 2006-2007, when I also had a guest studio at the Faculty of Design of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. I used to come to Warsaw often and every time I looked at the empty streets I wondered: where are all the inhabitants of this city? I saw the capital as a rather gloomy place back then. Not much was happening. Eventually, however, a kind of energy was activated, which must have been previously suppressed by the past and a missing sense of purpose.

A multitude of small and large projects started to emerge, showing people the benefits of stepping out of their homes and taking part in the social life of the city. I had the opportunity to participate in these transformations, designing some of Warsaw's outdoor bars like Dolina Muminków or Przestrzeń Absolutna at Między Nami. Working with the Bęc Zmiana Foundation or City Hall on various pioneering urban projects, in cooperation with other designers and city activists, we developed temporary pavilions and different ephemeral places which helped revive Warsaw and bring about change. We had to create pretexts and spaces that would attract people. Without them, it would have been much harder to stimulate social life.

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