Silver Furniture Design · 2021
Bubble Chair
- A' Design Award 2021 Silver Winner in Furniture Design
- Awarded April 15, 2021
- CLIENT: Gorkovenko design studio
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 29,496
- Verification code D6513C0562 · Verify this award
About Bubble Chair
Bubble is a chair conceived as a collectible art object for private homes and public interiors. The rounded shapes suggest inflated softness, yet the frame is cast by hand from robust aluminium, creating a contrast between appearance and material. Aluminium was selected for its plasticity, which the designer considers the most alive of materials. The chair is produced through handcraft and casting, and the surface is satin finished for a matte sheen. Eight months and eighty kilograms of metal were needed, giving the seat a unique texture.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- Bubble chair - is not what it seems. From lightly inflated visual forms you can expect airy lightness: but the frame itself is cast by hand from a very robust aluminium. In front of us we have an interesting example of a conflict between form and content, which completely changes features and perception of the object itself. Choice of using aluminium was determined by its plasticity: in designers opinion, this is the most «alive» material out there.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Width 8800 mm x Depth 8500mm x Height 10500mm
- Tags
- chair, art object, collectible design, russian design
- Production Technology
- During the process of manufacturing the BUBBLE chair, only handcrafted labour was used as well as injection moulding technique. Material used is aluminium which has been purposely satined so it has a noble matte gloss. It took 8 months and 80kg of metall for a casting professional to manufacture the piece. Metal was given freedom, which in its turn has given it a unique texture, so the energy of the of the object can literally be felt by your skin.
- Design Challenge
- Designer calls his style «serious fun». This style can be found in all of his latest objects. Hard and soft. Hot and cold. Tender and brutal. At the junction of the opposites is where you find everything that is of most interest.
- Project Duration
- 8 months
Khabarovsk city, Russian Federation - Operation Flow
- It is an interior oxymoron, a toy for people who appreciate a paradox. Soft on the outside, hard on the touch, strange in its form, with unusual texture. It also posseses an appropriate temper: in the shadow BUBBLE projects a cosmic chill, in the sun it becomes a real «hot thing» (what else can you expect from aluminium). This chair can be an art piece in the hallway of a collector, or it can attract visitors attention in the lobby of a public space. But what can be said about BUBBLE for sure - is that nobody can call it boring.
- Research
- In the past few years the designer of BUBBLE has been gravitating towards rounded inflated shapes. Since his early childhood he has been dreaming about sitting on top of a hot air balloon - and today he has a great opportunity to make his dream come true. But on a different level and with a different philosophy.
- Inspiration
- Use of natural materials and manual labour is done out of respect to traditional approach, where the master shares warmth of his hands and part of his inner-self. BUBBLE for its creators is almost a living creature, a metal monster with a gentle soul. When you sit in it, you can almost sense its friendliness, support and security.
- Image Credits
- Alexei Mun
Colors of Bubble Chair
Get Bubble Chair
Bespoke Art Furniture and Interior Objects
We create extraordinary furniture pieces that challenge conventions. Our studio specializes in handcrafted art objects that blend Slavic motifs with contemporary design, transforming spaces through paradox and poetry. Each piece is a unique exploration of materials and form.
G0E9 ShopDesign Interview about Bubble Chair
Creating a resonance of visual image and actual implementation. The goal was to create soft, airy forms, but to show them through a completely different, seemingly unsuitable, yet alive and flexible material.
To combine the incompatible, to unite the cold and the hot. The goal was to create a visually soft chair out of a hard material, to give the cold metal an airy, ethereal shape. We argued for a long time about what material BUBBLE would be made of, and we settled on aluminum, because this metal has plasticity, relatively light weight, the right moderately ridged satined texture, which properly conveys the properties of materials and
handmade features.
handmade features.
We want to present it at an international exhibition and then in a gallery. It was important for me to get feedback on the project in such a prestigious competition as the A'DESIGN Award.
BUBBLE itself was conceived in my head very quickly. But when my team and I began to think about the process of implementation, then it really started getting interesting; we had to work both on the image and the choice of material for its exact implementation simultaneously.
It was an emotion that I translated into a drawing, and the drawing turned into an object. In the process of implementing it, the emotion only got deeper.
This is a unique object that will not go into mass production; we will produce it piece by piece in our own factory.
The desire to work with brutal and rough material in large volumes and experience its effect on human perception.
It was a great surprise to me that after the presentation of the Bubble, a great many people compared it to Jeff Koons, it was a great surprise and an honor for me.
A sophisticated man, the owner of a large house with a voluminous living room with space allocated for an unconventional object d'art.
As a rule, this kind of design and forms are usually constructed out of more pliable and soft materials, but we wanted to play with contrasts, so we chose metal.
Bubble represents something airy, soft, plush and flexible.
We combined a sketch design with the work of foundry masters and product
design engineers who helped bring the idea to life.
design engineers who helped bring the idea to life.
Despite its appearance, it is a hand-made product, and it took craftsmen a year to produce it.
Foundry masters
Product design engineers
Product design engineers
A strange classic foundry technology was used. Thus paying tribute to tradition in a new modern interpretation.
Every designer in the process of creation is always on the lookout for shapes and processes a huge amount of information; only through constant search you can come up with the perfect shape for you.
The big challenge for us in the production of the chair was the design features of the object and their influence on the casting technology.
I felt this object was worthy of attention and wanted to get feedback from the global design community.
I realized that it is possible to look at the everyday perception of the material from a different angle, and to influence people's impressions and emotions.
It's important to understand and know who to share your creativity and ideas with in order to be heard and seen, such as participating in A'design award competition.