Zene Mikhuna Tiyana by John G Williams is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2018 A' Design Award Fierru Premiu in Tiyarina Kamay Competition Category.

FierruTiyarina· 2018

Zene Mikhuna Tiyana

by John G Williams

Client: John G Williams

A' Design Award Fierru Premiu Winner in Tiyarina Category

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Verified Award Winner

Verify Award Status for #58495

View at A' Design Award Press Release Award Badge

Colors

The Design

About Zene Mikhuna Tiyana

Zene mikhuna tiyanaqa kawsariq k'ullumantawan Dinamarka Modernu ruwaymantam yuyayninta hurqun. Q'apya ash k'ullu wakichisqakunaqa ch'usaq hinallataq sinchi kanku, sinchi k'ullu tiyanakunatawan wasa saruqkunatam sayarichinku, chaykunaqa wakichisqa patapi phawaqhina rikukun. Tiyana/wasa saruqpa mut'usqa rikch'ayninkunaqa manam k'ullu k'umuchispachu ruwakun, aswanpas sinchi k'ullu k'ullukunata t'inkispa hinallataq wakichispam ruwakun. Huk qatiqhinaqa q'apya ash wakichisqakunaqa huñunachiyta qunku, tiyana/wasa saruqkunapaq akllasqa mana kikin llaqta materialkunataqmi interesta hinallataq allin kayta paqarichinku.

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award Fierru Premiu

Zene Mikhuna Tiyana A' Design Award Fierru Premiu mishak kan, yupaychay, kayta ruray yachak shinallatak industriapak mañaykunata paktachik alli diseñukunaman kun. Fierru mishak kashkakunaka hatun ruray ushayta, hanak yachayta, yachak yuyayta shinallatak ruray kamachiyta rikuchinku. Zene Mikhuna Tiyana sinchi yupaychashka, kuyashka shinallatak kuyashka ruray, ruranapak alli shinallatak mushuk yuyaypi kanata munanku. Kay Fierru Premiu japishka diseñuka industriapak ashtawan alli ruraykunata tantachin shinallatak yachaywan shinallatak ushaywan tantashka tekniku ushayta charin. Sinchi ruraymanta Zene Mikhuna Tiyana yupaychashka kan shinallatak kawsayta alliyachik ruraykunata kuypak ruray kan, pachata ashtawan alli kachun ruran.

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