Zene Noho Pāʻina by John G Williams is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2018 A' Design Award Hao in Hoʻolālā Lako Hale Competition Category.

HaoLako Hale· 2018

Zene Noho Pāʻina

by John G Williams

Client: John G Williams

A' Design Award Hao Winner in Lako Hale Category

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Verified Award Winner
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View at A' Design Award Press Release Award Badge

Colors

The Design

About Zene Noho Pāʻina

ʻO ka noho pāʻina ʻo Zene, ua loaʻa kona hoʻoulu ʻana mai ka lāʻau kūloko a me ka hoʻolālā Danish Modern. He maʻalahi a paʻa nō nā kīʻaha lāʻau ʻāsa māmā, a kākoʻo lākou i nā noho a me nā kua noho lāʻau paʻakikī i ʻike ʻia me he mea lana ana ma luna o ke kīʻaha. ʻAʻole i hana ʻia nā ʻano piʻo o ka noho/kua noho ma ke kūlou ʻana i ka lāʻau, akā ma o ka hoʻopili ʻana a me ke kālai ʻana i ka lāʻau paʻakikī paʻa. Ma ke ʻano he kaʻina, hāʻawi nā kīʻaha lāʻau ʻāsa māmā i ka pili ʻana, a ʻo nā mea kūloko like ʻole i koho ʻia no nā noho/kua noho, hoʻāla lākou i ka hoihoi a me ke kūpono.

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award Hao

Ua lanakila ka hoʻolālā Zene Noho Pāʻina i ka A' Design Award Hao, he ʻike hoʻohanohano i hāʻawi ʻia i nā hoʻolālā maikaʻi e hoʻokō ana i nā koi ʻoihana a ʻoihana hana i manaʻo ʻia mai nā mea hoʻokumu i hana maikaʻi ʻia. Hōʻike nā lanakila Hao i ka mākau nui, ka loea kiʻekiʻe, ka ʻike akamai a me ka hiki hana noʻeau o ka poʻe i hana iā lākou. Manaʻo ʻia ʻo ka hoʻolālā Zene Noho Pāʻina he mea hoʻokumu i mahalo nui ʻia, hoʻohiwahiwa ʻia a aloha ʻia e pono a hou. ʻO kēia hoʻolālā i lanakila i ka A' Design Award Hao e hoʻohui ana i nā hana maikaʻi loa o ka ʻoihana a loaʻa nā ʻano ʻenehana mākaukau i hui pū ʻia me ka ʻike hana a me ka makakoho. Mahalo ʻia ka hoʻolālā Zene Noho Pāʻina no kona nānā pono a ua hoʻolālā ʻia e hāʻawi i nā hoʻomaikaʻi ola e kōkua ai i ka hana ʻana i ka honua i wahi maikaʻi aku.

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