Hasta La Ideas

Designer Konstantin Grcic has produced a collection of furniture that combines industrial sheet glass with pistons, hinges and cranks for his latest exhibition at Galerie Kreo in Paris (+ slideshow).

Grcic collaborated with a traditional glass workshop in Frankfurt, Germany, to produce the collection comprising a chair, tables, chests, shelving and a vertical cabinet from the same float glass commonly used in architectural projects.

“Glass is not an obvious material for making furniture but it is a very intriguing material,” Grcic told Dezeen. “It is an industrial material, which is an aspect that I like about it.”

The transparency of the glass contrasts with fittings made from the black silicone typically used to minimise damage to glass surfaces, and the furniture also employs industrial gas pistons to introduce movement and an element of interactivity.

“These gas pistons – which are another industrially pre-fabricated product – create movement in a very magical, soft way,” said Grcic. “I think it adds another quality to the furniture that makes it more human.”

In the example of the chair, the pistons are linked to a lever that can be used to alter the position of the backrest, while round tables incorporate a piston that makes it easy to fold the top down.

A large table has four telescopic pistons attached to a crank that adjusts the height of the surface, simple boxes feature lids that close smoothly without any danger of breakage, and a book shelf incorporates wooden blocks that can be slid sideways like sprung bookends.

“Because the gas piston makes the movement so precise and controlled, it gives a lot of confidence,” Grcic pointed out. “These pistons are industrial products but each one is customised, so we specify exactly what it is used for. It is very beautiful – almost scientific – how they accurately adjust the piston to just be what we need, with a very soft, almost automatic movement.”

Grcic said he believes that there is a stigma that affects people’s relationship with glass furniture: “As well as the perception that glass is cold, there is a psychological belief that maybe it is fragile and could break and hurt you. [With these pieces] I am forcing you to interact, to touch it and interact with it and to overcome this psychological barrier.”

The exhibition’s title, Man Machine, is borrowed from an album by German electronic band Kraftwerk, and Grcic claimed it was chosen to represent the meeting of “the human heart and the machine, the mechanical precision, the cogs, the cold industrial aesthetic with something that is softer, more poetic, more emotional.”

The designer, who is renowned for his industrially manufactured products for brands including Vitra, Magis and Emeco, said that projects such as this one and a previous collection of painted aluminium furniture he designed for Galerie Kreo offer an opportunity to experiment with ideas that might eventually filter into his commercial work.

“I think in design it is not necessary that we push these boundaries all the time but sometimes it is really good and the gallery provides the freedom to experiment and to try things,” the designer claimed.

“My work for galleries is very much informed by my thinking as an industrial designer,” he added. “The gallery is a laboratory for ideas that I would eventually love to see being developed on an industrial scale. Only by creating them do you understand their potential, how they work and how they could be developed further on an industrial scale.”

The exhibition continues until 17 May 2014.

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Jewellery that resembles stove pipes is among body adornments by Dutch fashion design duo Gijs+Emmy to go on show at Amsterdam‘s Stedelijk Museum later this month (+ slideshow).

The Gijs+Emmy Spectacle revisits a sensational collaborative exhibition of work by husband and wife team Gijs Bakker and Emmy van Leersum that was at the Stedelijk Museum in 1967.

“In the late 1960s, Bakker and Van Leersum, both trained jewellery designers, created a furore with their avant-garde jewelry and clothing that fused fashion, design and art,” said a statement from the museum.

The pair’s duct pipe bracelets and curved aluminium collars caused a stir when first exhibited, displayed on live models who moved to electronic music under futuristic lighting.

For this new retrospective, the original exhibition will be recreated with the help of first-hand accounts and consultation from Bakker.

Sculptural jewellery and fashion designs created by the duo between 1967 and 1972 from the museum’s collection and other sources will go on show.

Iconic designs such as Bakker’s purple Stovepipe Necklace and matching bracelet are among the pieces to be exhibited.

Hinged metal collars that curve downwards over the shoulders and upwards around the sides of the face will also feature, alongside gold bangles with sinuous shapes and oversized earrings.

In these images the designs are worn by 1960s model Sonja Bakker, who isn’t related to the designers.

Bakker and Van Leersum met while studying at the Institute of Applied Art in Amsterdam during the 1950s. Bakker went on to found Droog, the avant-garde conceptual Dutch design collective in 1993.

The exhibition opens on 22 February and will continue until 24 August.

The Stedelijk Museum is currently hosting a retrospective of work by Dutch designer Marcel Wanders.

An extension to the museum, which looks a bit like the underside of a kitchen sink, was completed in September 2012 by Benthem Crouwel Architects.

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to open at the Stedelijk Museum appeared first on Dezeen.

Recently opened at Paris’ The Carpenters Workshop Gallery, photographer-turned-designer Stuart Haygarth’s “Play” showcases fascinating pieces of furniture, from lighting to tables. Upon first blush, the British designer’s sculptural works appear as…

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A retrospective of work by Dutch designer Marcel Wanders has opened at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (+ movie).

Marcel Wanders: Pinned Up at the Stedelijk features work from Wanders‘ entire career, charting developments from the late 1980s up to the present day.

Iconic pieces on show include the Knotted Chair that marked his international breakthrough in 1996 and the Lace Table created when Wanders was part of the avant-garde conceptual Dutch design movement led by Droog Design in the late 1990s.

This is the first large-scale presentation of the designer’s work and the first major design exhibition at the museum since its reopening in 2012.

“It’s not so much that it’s almost 25 years and it’s not so much that I’m 50, but it’s just the right moment for me,” Wanders says in this movie filmed behind the scenes at the exhibition installation.

“When you look at the work you do every day, you do see things,” he continues. “But if you look at the work you did for 25 years, suddenly you start to get a more complete picture.”

Over 400 objects are on view in the lower-level gallery space, located in the new wing of the Stedelijk Museum.

The show is divided into three sections. A white zone groups his work according to themes including craftsmanship, narratives and dialogues, surface, innovation, archetypes, variation, and playing with scale.

A black zone then presents work of a more experimental nature in a theatrical setting.

This area features seven virtual interiors created by Wanders as a series of movies. Some are fantasy interiors incorporating his furniture, while others depict more mysterious, dreamlike worlds.

A third zone functions as a lounge where Wanders’ role as art director for design companies is explored, including the Moooi brand that he co-founded in 2001 and the publicity photos that he creates for clients including Dutch airline KLM.

High-profile interior design projects are represented too, including the Villa Moda boutique in Bahrain and the Andaz Amsterdam Prinsengracht Hotel.

“Marcel is not only one of the most important Dutch designers of the past decade, but in fact he is one of the most creative, versatile and successful designers internationally of the past decade,” says exhibition curator Ingeborg de Roode.

Dutch pop composer Jacob Ter Veldhuis has created a soundscape especially for the exhibition and Wanders has also partnered created a cocktail that will be served in the museum’s restaurant for the duration of the show. The exhibition continues until 15 June 2014.

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at the Stedelijk Museum appeared first on Dezeen.