Zene Siġġu tal-Ikel by John G Williams is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2018 Premju A' Design Award tal-Ħadid in Disinn tal-Għamara Competition Category.

ĦadidGħamara· 2018

Zene Siġġu tal-Ikel

by John G Williams

Client: John G Williams

Premju A' Design Award tal-Ħadid Winner in Għamara 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 Siġġu tal-Ikel

Is-siġġu tal-ikel Zene jieħu l-ispirazzjoni tiegħu mill-injam indiġenu u mid-disinn Daniż Modern. L-oqfsa ħfief tal-fraxxnu huma sempliċi u robusti u jsostnu s-siġġijiet u l-mistrieħ tad-dahar tal-injam iebes li jidhru qishom jgħumu fuq il-qafas. Il-forom mgħawġin tas-siġġu/mistrieħ tad-dahar mhumiex iffurmati billi jgħawġu l-injam iżda pjuttost billi jingħaqad u jissawwar l-injam iebes solidu. Bħala sensiela, l-oqfsa ħfief tal-fraxxnu jipprovdu koeżjoni, u l-materjali lokali differenti magħżula għas-siġġijiet/mistrieħ tad-dahar joħolqu interess u rilevanza.

The Recognition

About the Premju A' Design Award tal-Ħadid

Zene Siġġu tal-Ikel huwa rebbieħ tal-Premju A' Design Award tal-Ħadid, rikonoxximent prestiġjuż mogħti lil disinji tajbin li jissodisfaw ir-rekwiżiti professjonali u industrijali mistennija minn ħolqien imfassal tajjeb. Ir-rebbieħa tal-Ħadid juru l-ħila kbira, l-ispeċjalizzazzjoni għolja, il-fehim espert u l-kapaċità kreattiva tal-ħallieqa tagħhom. Huwa mistenni li Zene Siġġu tal-Ikel ikun ħolqien imqabbar ħafna, mammirat u maħbub li huwa prattiku u innovattiv. Dan id-disinn rebbieħ tal-Ħadid jintegra l-aħjar prattiki tal-industrija u għandu karatteristiċi tekniċi kompetenti marbuta mal-għarfien u t-talent. Zene Siġġu tal-Ikel huwa rispettat għall-eżattezza tiegħu u mfassal biex itejjeb il-kwalità tal-ħajja u jgħin jagħmel id-dinja post aħjar.

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