What defines a classic of 21st-century design? Technological innovation? A novel use of materials? Social responsibility? Or just plain good looks? The Victoria & Albert’s recent purchase of eight contemporary pieces by Fredrikson Stallard, Nendo, BCXSY, Platform, and Satyendra Pakhalé could provide some insight into such a determination. The acquisitions were made with nearly £100,000 (approximately $160,000) from the Outset Contemporary Art Fund.
At first blush, the list of chosen designers seems pretty arbitrary. Sure, the Japanese studio Nendo and the British duo Fredrikson Stallard are well-known, but where are the usual suspects -- Konstantin Grcic, Yves Béhar, or Naoto Fukasawa, to name but a few? And, oddly, nearly half (three of the eight) of the pieces are from Nendo. Turns out, there’s some logic to the seeming randomness: “When choosing the works, we focused on what we needed for forthcoming exhibition and gallery projects to assure that these objects will be on display shortly,” Jana Scholze, Victoria & Albert’s curator of modern furniture and product design, told Co.Design. The upcoming shows include British Design 1948–2012, which will coincide with next year’s Olympic Games, India Design Now, slated for fall 2012, and a proposed exhibition on Japanese contemporary design.
Fractal Table II, by Platform, 2007
This table owes its complex structure to digital technology and a process called stereolithography, which takes place in a 3-D printer, in which the form is built from the bottom up, layer by layer.
Table #1 (or Log Table), by Fredrikson Stallard, 2002
The duo's signature piece, this tables uses seemingly archaic methods of construction: silver birch logs lashed together with a thin steel strap normally used for binding shipping pallets. This is the first prototype of the table and will be a prominent example of contemporary British Design in the V&A's 21st-century gallery.
Pyrenees, by Fredrikson Stallard, 2007–2011
This sofa consists of a large block of foam hand-carved by the designers into a landscape with three areas for sitting. It took a few years to develop the distinctive resin finish -- a thin, high-tech rubber coated with flock fibers.
Cord chair, by Nendo, 2009
Manufactured by Maruni with legs only 12 millimeters in diameter, the Cord chair maintains its functionality despite its nearly disappearing frame. One of the slimmest chairs in history, it must be made by hand rather than mass-produced by machine.
Chair, Thin Black Line Series, by Nendo, 2010
Despite appearing like a sketch made in air, the transparent surfaces and volumes of this chair fulfill their practical functions. The series was first shown in a solo exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery during the 2010 London Design Festival. Checkout how this chair disappears.
Cabbage chair, by Nendo, 2008
Issey Miyake requested an environmentally sustainable object suitable for life in the future. This was Nendo's response: a chair made from the paper rolls used in the making of Miyake's famous Pleats Please lines. Checkout how the chair is created.
The entire collection will be showcased at the ninth annual London Design Festival, from September 17–25. But why wait, when you can see them all now in the above slideshow?
COMMENTARY: Those are some really cool chairs.
Courtesy of an article dated June 29, 2011 appearing in Fast Company Design
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