Zense Asztal-Szék Garnitúra by Louis Wai Yin Hung

Zense Asztal-Szék Garnitúra by Louis Wai Yin Hung is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2025 Aranydíj A' Design Award in Bútortervezés Competition Category.

AranyBútor· 2025

Zense Asztal-Szék Garnitúra

by Louis Wai Yin Hung

Client: Iterative Studio

Aranydíj A' Design Award Winner in Bútor Category

1,749,872

Verified Award Winner

Verify Award Status for #171037

View at A' Design Award Press Release Award Badge

Colors

The Design

About Zense Asztal-Szék Garnitúra

A Zense egy átalakítható asztal, amely a hagyományos kínai kézművességet ötvözi a kortárs funkcionalitással. Dizájnja az átalakulás folyamatát rituális cselekvéssé emeli, bevonva a használó mind az öt érzékét a kalligráfiai felület és a teaszertartás platformja közötti zökkenőmentes átmenethez. A darab kézzel készült, példa nélküli favékonyságot ér el mesteri kézműves technikákkal, kizárólag hagyományos faösszeillesztési módszerekre támaszkodva, bármilyen fém alkatrész nélkül.

The Recognition

About the Aranydíj A' Design Award

Zense Asztal-Szék Garnitúra az Aranydíj A' Design Award győztese, mérhetetlenül rangos elismerés az elsőrangú, csodálatos és kiemelkedő dizájnoknak. Az aranygyőztesek rendkívül innovatív, látnoki és káprázatosan csillogó alkotások, amelyek tükrözik tervezőik zsenialitását, bölcsességét és mesterségbeli tudását. Zense Asztal-Szék Garnitúra-tól azt várják, hogy nagyra dicsért, irányt mutató, monumentális találmány legyen, amely példátlan értéket szolgáltat. Ez az Aranydíj A' Design Award kitüntetést elnyert dizájn látványos, megbecsült projekt, amely nagymértékben szolgálja, és előre viszi a művészet, a tudomány, a dizájn és a technológia határait. Zense Asztal-Szék Garnitúra intenzív vágyérzetet kelt, szenvedélyt ébreszt, bátorítja a kreativitást, és lenyűgöz bennünket.

Behind the Design

Press Kit

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

Unique Properties: Zense is both a furniture to ritual instrument. Its transforming structure—crafted from impossibly slender wood members—orchestrates tea ceremony and calligraphy while inscribing cultural memory into space. Every operational motion (wood sliding, joinery clicking) becomes ceremonial act of all 5 senses from touch, to sound; every use converts rooms into heritage vessels. The exoskeleton's artisanal precision enforces ritual deliberation, making tradition tactile through:
Dimensions & Packaging: 1300mm x 550mm x 720mm. Fully handcrafted with (screwless) traditional wooden joinery techniques. Weight distribution of structures optimised to minimise profile of structural members into 30mmx30mm solid wood.
Tags: Handcrafted, table, chair, set, upcycled, wood, traditional, joinery, asian, culture
Production Technology: Handcrafted by master artisans using traditional Chinese joinery, the furniture set is composed of 553 upcycled timber components, each meticulously shaped to optimize weight distribution—resulting in a slender yet perfectly balanced structure. Analog iterations refined proportions without digital intervention, ensuring harmony between form and function. Magnets were discreetly chiseled into wooden housings, as the assembly relies entirely on wood-on-wood joinery, eliminating metal fasteners. Even its construction embodies ritual, merging vernacular craftsmanship with intentional, meditative precision.
Design Challenge: This project faced the dual challenge of reviving ancient Chinese joinery while pushing wood’s structural limits to unprecedented thinness—all without modern engineering aids. nternally, we grappled with fading craftsmanship traditions. Material constraints demanded upcycled wood with unpredictable grain behavior, while the absence of metal fasteners required perfect joinery precision. Production hinged on master artisans capable of such handwork that relied on sensory intuition alone.
Research: This project pursued the minimal threshold dimensions of wooden members while retaining structural integrity, guided solely by craftsmen who discern strength through fingertips. Each slender element was refined not by engineering calculations, but through generations of tactile material intelligence. Practitioners tested these components, their ceremonial movements revealing where rigidity needed to yield to grace.
Inspiration: Zense transforms Asian heritage into lived experience. This kinetic table merges tea ceremony and calligraphy through masterful woodcraft—its slender exoskeleton achieving structural elegance while enforcing ritual deliberation. Every interaction engages the senses, making tradition tactile rather than symbolic. Through material intelligence and embodied use, Zense bridges past and future, turning cultural memory into tangible, sensory encounters.
Project Duration: The project started in 2018 and was exhibited most notably DesignInspire 2019 and SUPERDESIGN SHOW (Superstudio Pi - Via Tortona 27 - Milan) in 2022, amongst other venues in Hong Kong and China across 2022-2025.
Operation Flow: Zense begins as a serene writing surface, but with a simple lift, its wooden top rises and locks into place, transforming into a tea ceremony platform. There are no buttons or complicated mechanisms; just smooth, deliberate motions that mirror the care of traditional rituals themselves. This motion forces mindfulness, and addresses all 5 sense of the body. Every interaction—the weight of the moving parts, the satisfying click of alignment is designed to make the past feel present and purposeful.