Charlie Wynter is a designer and fabricator at SHoP Architects and longtime maker of things. Co-managing SHoP’s Brooklyn fabrication space, he has been honing his skills in machining, metalworking and woodworking, robotics and much more. Having gotten his Bachelor of Industrial Design at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, Charlie is a born and raised New Yorker. Collaborating with designers and fabricators in Brooklyn and abroad is an ongoing passion that keeps him excited about the growing number of makers and the blurring of disciplines.

What is your favorite design book?

Making It: Manufacturing Techniques for Product Design by Chris Lefteri. I found this book in my final year at Pratt. It opened up my approach to creating something while I still had access to all the incredible tools at school. I loved having an encyclopedia on methods of manipulating material.

What is your favorite design object?

Nanocrystalline Copper Furniture by Max Lamb. First, I have always been drawn to copper. As an antimicrobial, conductive and ductile material, it serves a purpose in cookware, building construction, and electrical components. But it is the warmth of the metal that makes it so welcoming to use. The playful forms of these objects are easy to understand when they are clay with their thumbprints and obvious hand formed nature but once the electroplating creates this gilded quality, the furniture pieces feel like holy relics.