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Zene Krzesło do jadalni by John G Williams

Zene Krzesło do jadalni by John G Williams is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2018 Żelazna Nagroda A' Design Award in Wzornictwo Mebli Competition Category.


ŻelaznaMeble· 2018

Zene Krzesło do jadalni

by John G Williams

Client: John G Williams

Żelazna Nagroda A' Design Award Winner in Meble Category

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Verified Award Winner

Verify Award Status for #58495

Colors

The Design

About Zene Krzesło do jadalni

Krzesło do jadalni Zene czerpie inspirację z rodzimego drewna i duńskiego wzornictwa modernistycznego. Lekkie ramy z jesionu są proste i solidne, a podtrzymują siedziska i oparcia z drewna liściastego, które sprawiają wrażenie unoszących się nad konstrukcją. Zakrzywione kształty siedziska i oparcia nie powstają poprzez gięcie drewna, lecz przez łączenie i formowanie litego drewna liściastego. Jako seria, lekkie ramy z jesionu zapewniają spójność, a różnorodne lokalne materiały wybrane na siedziska i oparcia wzbudzają zainteresowanie i nadają znaczenie.

The Recognition

About the Żelazna Nagroda A' Design Award

Zene Krzesło do jadalni to laureat Żelaznej Nagrody A' Design Award, prestiżowego wyróżnienia przyznawanego dobrym projektom, które spełniają zawodowe i przemysłowe wymagania oczekiwane od dobrze zaprojektowanych dzieł. Laureaci Żelaznej Nagrody wykazują wielką biegłość, wysoką specjalizację, fachowe zrozumienie i zdolności twórcze ich autorów. Zene Krzesło do jadalni ma być wysoko cenionym, podziwianym i drogim sercu dziełem, które jest praktyczne i innowacyjne. Ten projekt nagrodzony Żelazną Nagrodą A' Design Award integruje najlepsze praktyki branżowe i ma kompetentne cechy techniczne powiązane z wiedzą fachową i talentem. Dzięki starannemu wykonaniu Zene Krzesło do jadalni cieszy się szacunkiem, a jego zadaniem jest zapewnianie poprawy jakości życia, która pomaga uczynić świat lepszym miejscem.

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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