The credit crunch has sparked a trend in frill-free design. Cue the folds, flexes and fractures of our featured designers who are choosing the re-use of materials over the ruffle.
Fold
Tokyo-based architecture and design group nendo comments on the excesses of fashion with its unfurling Cabbage chair, made from the waste paper created as a by-product of the fabric-pleating industry. The chairs are hand made and will be presented at the Friedman Benda Gallery in New York from 27 February to 28 March 2009.
The exhibition, called Ghost Stories, will show a “constellation” of forty of the chairs in a “dreamlike interior landscape”, the gallery says. The exhibition is nendo’s answer to the challenge posed by fashion designer Issey Miyake to create a futuristic object that would convey how man will live in the 21st century.
Wonder how it’s made? Find out here.
http://www.dezeen.com/2008/03/06/cabbage-chair-by-nendo/
Flex
Australian company Bang Design has flexed plywood into fluid, flowing forms with its latest Pli series. Constructed from a combination of plywood shell and brushed stainless steel, Pli is environmentally friendly, being sourced from sustainable plantation-grown timber. Bang Design is the brainchild of industrial design graduates Bryan Marshall and David Granger and has been running for more than fifteen years. The series consists of a range of armchairs, ottomans and tables that work brilliantly as stand alone or group pieces. Visit www.bangdesign.com.au
Fracture
Israeli designer Itay Ohaly has created a series of chairs called Fracture by making benches of various materials, including acrylic, beech, plywood, concrete and cardboard and tearing or smashing them into individual chairs. The project explores how the nature of each material affects the appearance of the fracture.
Fractures are part of life and nature, Ohaly says. He spent years “taming” the materials and removing them from their natural forms.
“Our eyes are accustomed to see flattened, polished and bright materials, as well as our sense of touch that examines the feel and quality of the surface,” he says. “This project … presents the wild and unique aesthetics of each material and its interaction with intense energy.”
Explore Ohaly’s work here: http://www.ohaly.com/
