Build More, Buy Less!

Constructing instead of consuming: good design for little money

The successful Internet campaign, now in a convenient collected volume

“You don’t have any money for furniture? Then build some yourself!” Just in time for the do-it-yourself wave, Berlin-based architect and rapper Van Bo Le-Mentzel (*1977), popularly known as Le van Bo, has hit a nerve with his initiative. Amateurs have followed his instructions and built hundreds of cube sofas, the “Berliner Hocker,” or “24-Euro Chairs” for a price that even the long-term unemployed can afford. A model apartment furnished with these pieces of furniture proves that it is possible to live tastefully without expensive grandstanding.

Van Bo Le-Mentzel’s call on the Internet to send him similar good ideas appealed to numerous users. The result of this “crowd sourcing” is this pocketbook with intelligent, build-it-yourself furniture accompanied by (life)wisdom from a multitalented artist and packed into book form. With blueprints and lists of materials, guaranteed “doable” by everyone.