Zene Silla de comedor by John G Williams

Zene Silla de comedor by John G Williams is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2018 A' Design Award de Hierro in Diseño de Mobiliario Competition Category.

HierroMobiliario· 2018

Zene Silla de comedor

by John G Williams

Client: John G Williams

A' Design Award de Hierro Winner in Mobiliario Category

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Verified Award Winner

Verify Award Status for #58495

View at A' Design Award Press Release Award Badge

Colors

The Design

About Zene Silla de comedor

La silla de comedor Zene se inspira en la madera autóctona y en el diseño moderno danés. Las estructuras de fresno claro son sencillas y robustas, y sostienen asientos y respaldos de madera dura que parecen flotar sobre la estructura. Las formas curvas del asiento y el respaldo no se logran doblando la madera, sino uniendo y modelando madera dura maciza. Como serie, las estructuras de fresno claro aportan cohesión, mientras que los distintos materiales locales elegidos para los asientos y respaldos generan interés y relevancia.

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award de Hierro

Zene Silla de comedor ha ganado el A' Design Award de Hierro, un reconocimiento prestigioso concedido a buenos diseños que cumplen los requisitos profesionales e industriales que se esperan de creaciones bien diseñadas. Los ganadores de Hierro demuestran gran habilidad, alta especialización, comprensión experta y capacidad creativa de sus creadores. Se espera que Zene Silla de comedor sea una creación muy apreciada, admirada y querida, práctica e innovadora. Este diseño ganador del A' Design Award de Hierro integra las mejores prácticas del sector y tiene características técnicas competentes unidas a conocimiento práctico y talento. Zene Silla de comedor es respetado por su minuciosidad y está concebido para aportar mejoras en la calidad de vida que ayudan a hacer del mundo un lugar mejor.

Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

Unique Properties: This series of dining chairs have American ash frames and showcase different hardwood timbers for the seat/backrest combinations.

The chairs draw on the ancient art of 'coopering' or how oak barrels are made for fermentation purposes. The curved forms of the seat/backrest are not formed by bending but rather by joining and shaping solid hardwood timber.

The chair strives to be very strong and beautiful. In short: Zene -
elegant, comfortable and dependable.
Dimensions & Packaging: 515mm wide x 570mm deep x 890mm high
seat: 515mm wide x 390mm deep
back:515mm wide x 200mm high
Tags: zene, dining chair, south africa, hardwood, curved, cooper, danish modern, minimalist
Production Technology: The Zene design evolved over a number of years. The starting point was probably a fascination with the art of coopering and how this has been applied to furniture design. Building the segmented seat and backrests took some practice to perfect, as did the development of custom modifications to standard workshop tools to shape and finish the smoothly shaped forms.
Design Challenge: Building the coopered seat/backrests was challenging as it required careful attention to the compression forces on the material and how best to achieve high compression without causing the seats to 'implode'.
Shaping the rough seats into finely finished and smooth curves required considerable re-working of the custom tooling to achieve the desired results
Research: Danish modern designs were studied and absorbed to consider different ways of rendering the frame, and its relationship to the seat, and to think through the spatial relationship of the seat to the backrest.
Web search was used to think about typical dimensions for the seat but in the end prototyping proved most fun.
Inspiration: The beauty grain and colour of indigenous African timber was a key aesthetic inspiration for this project. The more technical inspiration for the overall work, including the frame design came from iconic designers such as Hans J Wegner (for example the CH20 Elbow Chair). The coopering technique was inspired by Ontario furniture designer Adrian Ferrazzutti.
Project Duration: The first prototype was conceived in Johannesburg in 2007. It was slowly refined as background task over 10 years, and the first set of 6 chairs was produced in 2017
Operation Flow: Zene is designed mainly for use at the dining table and is designed for extended dining comfort.
Patents: no patents pending
Team Members: John G Williams: designer, craftsman
Image Credits: all images by the designer: John G Williams