Gold Furniture Design · 2021
Cornnie Corner Seating
by Wen-Hsin Tu
- A' Design Award 2021 Gold Winner in Furniture Design
- Awarded April 15, 2021
- CLIENT: Wen-Hsin Tu
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 46,281
- Verification code C996569577 · Verify this award
About Cornnie Corner Seating
Cornnie is a seating series designed for corner spaces. The series has three pieces that measure 1200 by 700 by 850 millimetres when placed together. Each seat is made of bendable plywood, glued and pressed on a mould milled by a CNC machine. Curved legs link each seat to the corner and suggest new ways to use the space. Cornnie lets users rest in corner areas and create a relatively personal space there without building a wall between each other. The intent is to offer a calm place to retreat within open shared environments.
Cornnie Corner Seating by Wen-Hsin Tu exemplifies a sophisticated engagement with the traditions of bentwood furniture craftsmanship while proposing fresh formal territory through its ingenious continuous ribbon construction. The work emerges from a lineage that includes the steam-bent innovations of nineteenth-century furniture makers and the laminated experiments of mid-twentieth-century Scandinavian designers, yet Tu's approach demonstrates distinctive conceptual clarity in its commitment to uninterrupted flow. The pale laminated wood, likely birch or a similar light-toned hardwood, has been coaxed through precise manufacturing processes into sweeping curves that challenge conventional distinctions between structural support and comfort surface. The designer seems particularly attuned to the poetic possibilities inherent in corner placement, transforming typically neglected architectural junctures into opportunities for human pause and connection. Technical accomplishment manifests in the seamless transitions between horizontal seating planes and vertical supportive elements, the material maintaining consistent thickness while navigating complex three-dimensional trajectories. The exposed lamination edges become decorative elements themselves, revealing the honest accumulation of thin veneers that enable such dramatic curvature without structural compromise. Photographed within an institutional stairwell context, the work invites contemplation of how furniture might activate transitional spaces, suggesting that moments of rest and reflection deserve elegant accommodation even in passages between destinations. One might consider how this piece transforms the corner from architectural leftover into compositional opportunity, asking what other overlooked spaces might be similarly elevated through thoughtful design intervention.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- A seating series designed for corner spaces, presenting a solitary moment that conveys the message, everyone needs space for themselves. Users can find comfortable corner spaces through the use of the seating and can create a relatively personal space there, without building a wall between each other. The furniture also shows that we don‘t always need to be proactive in seeking interaction, but can take a step back and make ourselves comfortable.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- 1200mm*700mm*850mm
(all three pieces putting together) - Tags
- Stool, Seating, Corner, Stair, Windowsill, Retreat, Solitary, Seclusion, Interaction, Get Along With
- Production Technology
- bendable plywoods were being glued and pressed on the mould that milled by CNC
- Design Challenge
- To figure out how to connect people and the corner spaces is the hardest part. There aremanyways that wecould sit in the corner spaces. But what’s the connection between people, object (seating) and space? And then, I come up with the ideas, the curved legs of the chairs. This relationship between object and space create dialogue between themselves, and leads to the specific characters of the objects. These characteristics also seem to hint to the user how they can use the space in a novel way. The process empowers the users to experience their environment with a new perspective.
- Project Duration
- The project started in October 2018 in Berlin and finished in October 2019 in Berlin, and was exhibited in the Berlin University of the Arts Design Master Graduation Show
- Operation Flow
- The seatings play an important role, they create an interface between people and space. This interrelationship leads to the specific characters of the objects, and these characteristics also seem to hint to the user how they can use the space in a novel way. The process empowers the users to experience their environment with a new perspective.
- Research
- I tried to sit in every corner space that I could find to experience how we could see and feel a room with different perspectives. And then I made some miniatures of spaces and objects to find out which element I can extract from the spaces to connect the design strongly with the corners. After the connection between object and space is bounded, I made some 1:1 prototypes of stools with curved legs and put them in certain positions to observe how people interact with them. A clear concept of the relationship between people, objects and spaces is then developed.
- Inspiration
- The spaces between public and private are becoming more open as time goes on. The people who use these in-between spaces are diverse. The interactions in these spaces enrich our everyday lives and provides inspiration, but also lead to stressful situations due to the lack of places to retreat. CORNNIE builds on these observations. Users can feel comfortable in corner spaces through the use of the seating and create a relatively personal space there without building a wall between each other.
- Image Credits
- Fotos © Shih-Hsien Chan, Wen-Hsin Tu
Video Music © Shih-Hsien Chan - Patents
- Design © Wen-Hsin Tu