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Zene Kiti cha Kulia by John G Williams

Zene Kiti cha Kulia by John G Williams is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2018 Tuzo ya Chuma ya A' Design Award in Usanifu wa Samani Competition Category.


ChumaSamani· 2018

Zene Kiti cha Kulia

by John G Williams

Client: John G Williams

Tuzo ya Chuma ya A' Design Award Winner in Samani Category

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Verified Award Winner

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Colors

The Design

About Zene Kiti cha Kulia

Kiti cha kulia cha Zene kinachukua msukumo wake kutoka kwa mbao za asili na muundo wa Danish Modern. Fremu nyepesi za mti wa ash ni rahisi na imara na zinashikilia viti na migongo ya mbao ngumu ambayo inaonekana kuelea juu ya fremu. Maumbo yaliyopinda ya kiti/mgongo hayatengenezwi kwa kupinda mbao bali kwa kuunganisha na kuunda mbao ngumu imara. Kama mfululizo, fremu nyepesi za mti wa ash hutoa mshikamano, na vifaa tofauti vya ndani vilivyochaguliwa kwa viti/migongo huzalisha mvuto na umuhimu.

The Recognition

About the Tuzo ya Chuma ya A' Design Award

Zene Kiti cha Kulia ni mshindi wa Tuzo ya Chuma ya A' Design Award, utambuzi wenye heshima unaotolewa kwa miundo mizuri inayokidhi mahitaji ya kitaalamu na ya kiviwanda yanayotarajiwa kutoka kwa kazi zilizobuniwa vizuri. Washindi wa Chuma huonyesha ustadi mkubwa, utaalamu wa hali ya juu, uelewa wa kitaalamu na uwezo wa kibunifu wa waumbaji wao. Zene Kiti cha Kulia inatarajiwa kuwa kazi inayothaminiwa sana, kupendwa na kuenziwa, ambayo ni ya vitendo na bunifu. Muundo huu ulioshinda Tuzo ya Chuma ya A' Design Award unajumuisha mbinu bora za tasnia na una sifa za kiufundi zenye uwezo zilizounganishwa na ujuzi na kipaji. Zene Kiti cha Kulia inaheshimiwa kwa uangalifu wake na imebuniwa kutoa maboresho ya ubora wa maisha yanayosaidia kuufanya ulimwengu kuwa mahali bora zaidi.

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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