Zene Fonksyon Prensipal: Chèz Manje by John G Williams is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2018 A' Design Award Fè in Dezayn Mèb Competition Category.
FèMèb· 2018
Zene Fonksyon Prensipal: Chèz Manje
Client: John G Williams
A' Design Award Fè Winner in Mèb Category
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The Design
About Zene Fonksyon Prensipal: Chèz Manje
Tèks Liv: Chèz manje Zene pran enspirasyon li nan bwa endijèn ak konsepsyon Modèn Danwa. Ankadreman lejè an bwa frèn yo senp epi solid epi yo sipòte chèz ak do chèz an bwa di ki sanble ap flote sou ankadreman an. Fòm koube chèz la/do chèz la pa fòme lè yo pliye bwa a men pito lè yo asanble ak bay fòm bwa di solid. Kòm yon seri, ankadreman lejè an bwa frèn yo bay koyerans, epi diferan materyèl lokal ki chwazi pou chèz yo/do chèz yo kreye enterè ak enpòtans.
The Recognition
About the A' Design Award Fè
Zene Fonksyon Prensipal: Chèz Manje se yon ganyan A' Design Award Fè, yon rekonesans ki gen prestij yo bay bon design ki satisfè egzijans pwofesyonèl ak endistriyèl yo atann de kreyasyon ki byen fèt. Ganyan Fè yo montre gwo konpetans, espesyalizasyon wo, konpreyansyon ekspè ak kapasite kreyatif kreyatè yo. Yo atann Zene Fonksyon Prensipal: Chèz Manje pou se yon kreyasyon anpil moun estime, admire e renmen ki pratik e inovatè. Design sa a ki ganyen A' Design Award Fè entegre pi bon pratik sektè a e li gen karakteristik teknik konpetan ki lye ak konnesans pratik ak talan. Yo respekte Zene Fonksyon Prensipal: Chèz Manje pou jèntan li e li fèt pou bay amelyorasyon kalite lavi ki ede fè mond lan vin yon pi bon kote.
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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