Cometabolism Studio
Have a Seat - Square Stool, 2020
Acrylic, stainless steel, nylon12.6 x 12.6 x 17.7 in.
Courtesy Cometabolism Studio

Cometabolism Studio
Founded in 2020 by Zhang Ning and Yang Yafei, Cometabolism Studio is a Shanghai-based design and art research practice that activates the latent potential of mass-produced industrial components. By reconfiguring everyday objects to challenge their intended functionality, the duo reconciles urban and domestic space, industry, and life activities. Their work emerges from street-level observations and domestic interventions, situating the body as an agent in transforming the built environment through acts of appropriation and adaptation.

The Have a Seat series exemplifies their interest in negotiating public space by reimagining urban infrastructure such as bollards and barriers as furniture. The project emerges from observations of pedestrian interactions with street barriers, revealing how people subconsciously utilize regulatory infrastructure as possible sources of physical and emotional support. The resulting objects defy the standardization of public life, creating informal zones of rest, intimacy, and shared resistance by detourning traffic barricades for seating. This stool design illuminates possibilities to reclaim moments of bodily autonomy within the discipline of city planning and privatized spaces.