Design story

Do Hit: a chair that leaves room for its owner

A conventional chair arrives with its shape settled. Do Hit begins with a steel volume and leaves a consequential part of its final appearance to someone else. Participation becomes more than choosing a colour.

Written and reviewed by PatinaHall2 minutes readPublished 25 October 2026

A depressed angular steel box forms a seat-like volume, with an intact cube farther behind. — PatinaHall editorial reconstruction. It is not a documentary photograph. Starting and formed states explain the participation concept. Neither volume documents an actual owner’s chair or demonstrates a forming procedure or safe seating outcome.

On this page

Key facts & takeaways

At a glance

Subject: Do Hit chair
Entry: Design story
Last reviewed: 25 October 2026
Designed: 2000documented

Three things to remember

Marijn van der Poll designed Do Hit in 2000.
Individual examples can have later forming dates.
Designer, promoter, initiator and brand are separate roles.

Leave one decision unfinished

An unformed steel box does not yet offer the familiar invitation of a seat. Do Hit makes that incompleteness the starting point. Its concept allows participation to change the volume, so the final chair records an encounter as well as a design.

Centraal Museum dates the design to 2000, and Kunsthal’s contemporary exhibition account describes the active role offered to the user.¹³ The object asks how much a designer must decide before someone else can take part.

One concept can produce different objects

The formed surface retains the evidence of change: flat areas meet irregular depressions and folds. Where a conventional production chair aims to repeat one finished outline, Do Hit gives individuality a role within the concept itself.

SFMOMA’s record makes the distinction especially clear. Its example is described as designed in 2000 and formed in 2010, then acquired in 2011.² Those are three different events. A later forming date need not mean that the underlying idea was newly designed that year.

An intact cube leads towards an irregularly depressed box-like volume. — Original PatinaHall schematic, not to scale. The concept distinguishes a starting volume from one possible formed state. It depicts no forming procedure or verified seating outcome.

Participation has its own credits

Centraal names Marijn van der Poll as designer, Droog as promoter, KesselsKramer as initiator and do create as brand.¹ Keeping those roles visible helps explain how an unusual proposal reached an audience.

The lasting interest is the shift in authorship of the final shape. Do Hit allows a repeatable starting condition to yield distinct physical outcomes. It makes the person who encounters the object part of the story the object can tell.

Research notesEvidence, connections and limits

Centraal distinguishes van der Poll, Droog, KesselsKramer and do create by role. SFMOMA records a 2000 design formed in 2010 and acquired in 2011. This is design history, not forming instructions or a judgement that any altered box is suitable seating.

Evidence map

Connected subjects and evidence

Reviewed facts

Designed 2000documented
The design dates to 2000. SFMOMA 2011.289 was formed in 2010 and acquired in 2011. Centraal 29618/001-003 was shown in Milan in 2000 and acquired in 2003; these are separate object histories.
Reviewed 25 October 2026 by PatinaHall editorial.
- Source 1Maker role labels; Dating; Notes;29618/001-003
- Source 2Date created and Date acquired
- Source 32000 exhibition description, Do hit paragraph

Reviewed connections

Do Hit chairdesigned byMarijn van der Polldocumented
Marijn van der Poll designed Do Hit. Centraal names Droog as promoter, KesselsKramer as initiator and do create as brand. User participation changes the final form; these separate roles do not establish an unrecorded manufacturer or a safe forming procedure.
Reviewed 25 October 2026 by PatinaHall editorial.
- Source 1Maker role labels; Dating; Notes;29618/001-003
- Source 2Date created and Date acquired
- Source 32000 exhibition description, Do hit paragraph
Do Hit chairuses techniqueParticipatory forming in Do Hitdocumented
Marijn van der Poll designed Do Hit. Centraal names Droog as promoter, KesselsKramer as initiator and do create as brand. User participation changes the final form; these separate roles do not establish an unrecorded manufacturer or a safe forming procedure.
Reviewed 25 October 2026 by PatinaHall editorial.
- Source 1Maker role labels; Dating; Notes;29618/001-003
- Source 2Date created and Date acquired
- Source 32000 exhibition description, Do hit paragraph

Research trail

Sources and further reading

Do Hit chair: Maker role labels; Dating; Notes;29618/001-003centraalmuseum.nlAccessed 25 October 2026
Do Hit chair: Date created and Date acquiredsfmoma.orgAccessed 25 October 2026
Do Hit chair: 2000 exhibition description, Do hit paragraphkunsthal.nlAccessed 25 October 2026