ISRAELI DESIGN STUDENT MICHAEL TSINZOVSKY'S STUNNING FURNITURE EVOKES MOTLEY ORIGINS OF ISRAELI CULTURE

With his beautifully ornamented tables and chairs, Michael Tsinzovsky tries to capture the soul of Israeli design -- not an insignificant challenge.

For his graduation thesis at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, in Jerusalem, furniture designer Michael Tsinzovsky tried to capture the soul of Israeli design -- not an insignificant challenge. “A discussion of design in a cultural context must always begin with some knowledge of the culture being discussed,” Tsinzovsky says. “In the case of Israeli culture this task seems especially complex and hazardous.” That's a mammoth understatement.

More to the point: Israel is a young country on very old soil. It’s also a cultural and political outsider in the heart of the Arab world. To talk about design in Israel is to talk about a motley crew of aesthetics, one that draws on everything from German woodworking to Islamic art to high-tech manufacturing -- all of which Tsinzovsky managed to incorporate into a lovely mosaic of furniture prototypes in which East meets West and old meets new.

 

The collection includes side tables, a coffee table, and a chair beautifully done up to resemble Arabic rugs and Arabesques. For materials, Tsinzovsky chose metal, as a nod to locally available resources, and wood, to acknowledge the traditional German carpentry techniques immigrants brought to Israel after World War II. Then he built the pieces using contemporary production methods. One side table is made by pressure-molding galvanized steel, another by CNC milling African walnut, and still another by laser-cutting wood veneer.

 

The best implications of Tsinzovsky’s concept are evidenced by Coexistence, the birch-legged metal table and chair in slide #5 above. Here, the Arabesques aren’t just ornamental motifs, they’re part and parcel to the construction of the furniture, making it "stronger and... possible to work with lighter and thinner materials,” Tsinzovsky says. The suggestion is that Israel’s protean cultural identity isn’t just grounds for making pretty design -- it’s something that can improve the functional aspects of design itself. We smell a metaphor!

  

COMMENTARY:   I have never anything like this before.  Love the deep carved geometric designs and CNC'd wood chair legs and the inlaid colored tile pieces.  The use of wood and galvanized steel is quite an unusual combinations, but gives Michael's creations functionality.  A combination of Byzantine Arabesque-American Art Deco and Navajo Indian.  If this is Israeli culture, I just don't see it.  Never the less, a very complex design concept. I could definitely see this as a decoration piece in somebody's NY City apartment, Upper East Side or the The Village perhaps.  Definitely not L.A., they got no taste down there.   I highly recommend that you check out the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design.  It's quite a center of art and design, and they plan on building a new campus in the center of Jerusalem.  

Courtesy of an article dated August 9, 2011 appearing in Fast Company Design   

Comments

[living room furniture]

I'm totally agree with you man.You'r 100% good here that they contains really great collections in furniture.I personally visited there.They gives customers great discount to every item bought from their shop.

[designer furniture uk]

n the case of Israeli culture this task seems especially complex and hazardous.” That's a mammoth understatement.

[sam]

All designs are inspired by arabic culture and arabic designs!, actually there is nothing we can call "israeli culture" because its a new country wich stole arabic land and start gathering people from all around the world! they dont have any common thing we can call it culture!?

[Calvin Mordarski]

Wow! This can definitely make a great conversation piece. I would love to have these in my living room.