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Zene Söögitool by John G Williams

Zene Söögitool by John G Williams is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2018 Rauaauhind A' Design Award in Mööblidisain Competition Category.


RaudMööbel· 2018

Zene Söögitool

by John G Williams

Client: John G Williams

Rauaauhind A' Design Award Winner in Mööbel Category

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Verified Award Winner

Verify Award Status for #58495

Colors

The Design

About Zene Söögitool

Söögitool Zene ammutab inspiratsiooni kohalikust puidust ja Taani modernistlikust disainist. Heledad saarepuust raamid on lihtsad ja vastupidavad ning kannavad lehtpuust istmeid ja seljatugesid, mis näivad raamil hõljuvat. Istme ja seljatoe kumerad vormid ei ole loodud puitu painutades, vaid pigem massiivset lehtpuitu ühendades ja vormides. Seeriana loovad heledad saarepuust raamid ühtsuse, samas kui istmete ja seljatugede jaoks valitud erinevad kohalikud materjalid tekitavad huvi ja asjakohasust.

The Recognition

About the Rauaauhind A' Design Award

Zene Söögitool on Rauaauhinna A' Design Award võitja, prestiižikas tunnustus, mis antakse headele disainidele, mis vastavad professionaalsetele ja tööstuslikele nõuetele, mida oodatakse hästi disainitud töödelt. Raudvõitjad näitavad oma loojate suurt oskust, kõrget spetsialiseerumist, asjatundlikku mõistmist ja loomingulist võimekust. Zene Söögitool peaks olema kõrgelt hinnatud, imetletud ja armastatud looming, mis on praktiline ja uuenduslik. See Rauaauhinna A' Design Award võidudisain ühendab tööstuse parimaid tavasid ning tal on pädevad tehnilised omadused, mis on seotud oskusteabe ja andega. Zene Söögitool on austatud oma põhjalikkuse eest ning on loodud pakkuma elukvaliteedi parandusi, mis aitavad teha maailma paremaks paigaks.

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

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