Functional Sculpture - Wendell Castle and Rem Koolaas

Functional Sculpture.

Last fall we blogged about Wendell Castle’s unique wall table #16, 1969, which was on view in Wandering Forms and Works from 1959-1979 at the Aldwich Contemporary Art Museum in Connecticut.

This table grabbed our imaginations as it evokes the idea of being outside with it’s tree-inspired form and epitomizes civility at the same time as a side table. The idea of living with functional forms that cross the boundaries of traditional furniture and sculpture is enlightening.

We were reminded of this piece upon seeing Rem Koolhaas purched on one of his  “Tools for Life,” which his firm, OMA, designed for Knoll and presented in Milan a couple of weeks ago. The Tools for Life range is based on the idea that furniture should be understood as a high-performance instrument rather than a design statement. This piece is adjustable according to needs of contemporary lifestyles. It’s a screen, a chair, a shelf … I’m not convinced of it’s true efficiency but the idea of objects adapting to the various needs of the user, all-the-while making an artistic statement, is intriguing.

Although these two pieces were conceived to achieve different goals and very different ideals during two very different periods in time, they both open up our minds to conceiving of functional interiors that eschew the heavy  boundaries imposed by traditional furniture.  How exciting!! 

Are you inspired by this concept?

Voluminous atmospheric lighting - Zaha Hadid and Issey Miyake

Zaha Hadid’s Aria lamp

IN-EI by Issey Miyake 

Last week in Milan Slamp presented Zaha Hadid’s Aria lamp. It’s form is sculptural and architectural (of course!) and is constructed with 50 individual layers of cristalflex (a techno-polymer), which is an incredibly light weight material. The fluid form that evokes a feeling of movement is also quite robust and creates a balanced experience of rapture and release as the light emitted through the openings is defused into the room. The largest version of this model imposes a glorious experience of volume and atmospheric light that relates well to classical and contemporary interiors alike.

This light reminds us of the ’IN-EI’ (Japanese for nuance and shadow) lighting collection by Issey Miyake for Artemide. Adapting his use of pleats in clothing to a lighting concept whereby folded paper textile made of recycled PET bottles is formed and cut using the 2D and 3D mathematical program designed by Miyake’s Reality lab, to define the form of the lamp shade. 

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