Melting furniture and other design responses to uncertain times

From melting surfaces and glacier-like shapes to furniture made from repurposed materials, collectible design is becoming less and less concerned with perfection. I’ve written before about the uniqueness of collectible design, when I spotted the work of Korean designer Seungjin Yang at PAD London. His furniture looks like balloons, but is actually designed to be sat on. This time, however, London also offered a glimpse of how designers are responding to the changes taking place around us through their work.

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During Frieze Week and PAD London (both of which ended yesterday), objects emerged that challenged conventional ideas about furniture, from its appearance and materials to the stories it tells. Alongside sculptural forms, attention was drawn to pieces bearing visible traces of repair and reuse, as well as those that place function second to emotion and artistic expression. These different approaches raise an interesting question: does an object for the home have to be perfect for us to love it?

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Furniture that looks as though it’s melting

One of the most striking examples was the Throne Armchair by Studio Rinck, presented at PAD London. Its geometric base, crafted from treated chestnut wood, contrasts with leather that cascades over the backrest in irregular, almost liquid folds. The result is a piece that initially appears solid and monumental, before seeming to lose its own contours.

Courtesy of Studio Rinck

Courtesy of Studio Rinck

A similar sensation, although approached through an entirely different material, can be found in Snowdrop, a floor lamp by designer Irene Cattaneo, presented by Galerie Yves Gastou. Made from bronze, it is topped with a glass form resembling a snowdrop, the flower that emerges while the ground is still cold and frozen. The combination of heavy metal and seemingly fragile glass creates the impression of a natural form preserved in time. These objects demonstrate how design can move away from strictly defined silhouettes and begin exploring the tension between hard and soft, permanent and fleeting, controlled and unpredictable.

Courtesy of Galerie Yves Gastou

Related: Collectible design

As though a piece of furniture had emerged from a glacier

At this year’s PAD London, nature appeared as more than simply a source of inspiration for colours or decorative motifs. In A Soft Landscape #3 by designer Jungin Lee, natural forms become the starting point for the object’s very construction. The armchair, presented by Charles Burnand Gallery, has an irregular, rough silhouette reminiscent of a piece of rock or a fragment broken off a glacier. Its body is made from more than a hundred layers of traditional Korean hanji paper, bonded with a natural flour paste and constructed without the use of a mould. The making process is just as important as the appearance. Rather than imitating a natural form with industrial precision, the designer arrives at a sculptural shape through painstaking hand-layering. As a result, the object looks as though it has been discovered in a landscape rather than manufactured according to predetermined geometry.

Photo: Courtesy of Galerie Charles Burnand

Traces of life become part of the design

While some designers explore the changing nature of materials, others turn to objects that already have a history. At Frieze London, London-based designer Rio Kobayashi presented the Bosa Bosa Chair 11, created by transforming an old wooden swivel chair. Kobayashi reworked the existing piece, removing sections of its dark varnish to reveal the raw wood beneath, and decorated the backrest with tiny black-and-white brushes connected by red and blue thread. The Japanese expression bosa bosa refers to messy hair, an apt description of the chair’s slightly dishevelled appearance. Kobayashi wanted to emphasise the object’s value through its transformation, giving the chair a new personality rather than simply turning it into “a restored object brought back to life”. The traces of repair and intervention became part of its character. It’s an interesting departure from the idea that design must look flawless (and, by extension, predictable).

Courtesy of Kate MacGarry

What connects all these works?

Not necessarily a shared aesthetic, and certainly not a single message. What connects them is a move away from objects whose primary purpose is to be visually pleasing and fit into a preconceived interior. Melting surfaces, irregular silhouettes, visible traces of repair and materials given a new lease of life introduce an element of unpredictability into design. They also remind us that objects do not exist in isolation from the world in which they are created. They are shaped by the availability of materials, production methods, attitudes towards the environment and the desire to give everyday things personal meaning.

Courtesy of Galerie Yves Gastou

That doesn’t mean glacier-like armchairs or chairs with dishevelled backrests will soon appear in every living room. Collectible design is, above all, a space for experimentation, and the objects displayed at fairs are often closer to sculpture than products intended for the mass market. Still, perhaps these works will encourage us to be a little bolder in our own interiors. Perhaps the next step in decorating our homes won’t involve buying another perfectly shaped piece, but choosing an object with character, a visible history or a form that makes us stop and look.