Zene Nofoa Taumafataga by John G Williams

Zene Nofoa Taumafataga by John G Williams is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2018 A' Design Award Uʻamea in Mamanu Meafale Competition Category.

UʻameaMeafale· 2018

Zene Nofoa Taumafataga

by John G Williams

Client: John G Williams

A' Design Award Uʻamea Winner in Meafale 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 Nofoa Taumafataga

O le nofoa taumafataga o le Zene e maua mai lona musumusuga i laau moni o le atunuu ma le mamanu Danish Modern. O faavaa mama o le ash e faigofie ma malolosi ma e lagolagoina ai nofoaga ma tua nofoa mai laau maaa e foliga mai o loo opeopea i luga o le faavaa. O foliga pi'o o le nofoa/tua nofoa e le'i faia i le pi'o o le laau ae ala i le tuufaatasia ma faataga o laau maaa mautu. I le avea ai o se faasologa, o faavaa mama o le ash e maua ai le fetaui, ma o mea eseese o le atunuu ua filifilia mo nofoaga/tua nofoa e faatupu ai le fiafia ma le talafeagai.

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award Uʻamea

O le A' Design Award Uʻamea na manumalo ai Zene Nofoa Taumafataga, o se faamaoniga mamalu e tuuina atu i mamanu lelei e faataunuu ai manaʻoga faapolofesa ma pisinisi e faamoemoeina mai galuega ua mamanuina lelei. O ē manumalo i le Uʻamea e faaalia ai le tomai tele, le faapitoa maualuga, le malamalama o tagata poto ma le mafai fatufatuaʻi o ē na faia. E faamoemoeina Zene Nofoa Taumafataga e avea ma mea ua matuā vivii, mataʻina ma pelepelea e aogā ma fou. O lenei mamanu na manumalo i le A' Design Award Uʻamea e tuufaatasia ai faiga sili o le pisinisi ma e iai uiga faatekonolosi mafai ua fesoʻotaʻi ma le poto ma le taleni. Ona o lona faatuatuaina, e tatau ai Zene Nofoa Taumafataga ona faaaloalogia ma ua mamanuina e tuuina mai ai faaleleiga o le olaga e fesoasoani e faia ai e le lalolagi se nofoaga e sili atu ona lelei.

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