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exploring the potential of copper in design world

issue 81 May 2016www.copperindesign.org

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Herzog Restaurantinteriors

Poetic Brass

Node Light

Carapace

Nim Coffee Table

objects

furniture

art

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www.copperindesign.org is a meeting space for contemporary designers and their followers. This international platform provides a comprehensive source of information on the crafting of the red metal: copper creations, first-hand accounts from designers, exhibitions, competitions and many others. The website is aimed at creators, design professionals, journalists and all copper-loving netsurfers, offering them an invitation to (re)discover this material whose natural properties have established it over the past few years as an essential feature of the design scene.Sponsor: European Copper Institute www.copperalliance.eu

interiors

Loop Wall Hook

Weaver Collectionobjects

Damoon Collection

Scaffold

Odyssey Capital

furniture

lighting

lighting

German designer Valentin Loellmann has created a collection of tables and chairs that pair rounded plates of polished brass with wood.The Brass range includes chairs, tables and an oval sofa, all of which rest on slender, slightly tapering metal legs. Tabletops and seats are made from sections of walnut or oak that were charred black before being polished.Loellmann likes the challenge of constructing organic shapes out of plates and not doing another bronze cast edition, developing the visible contrast between different materials, but also the feel of soft, polished brass next to warm wood.Loellmann‘s decision to pair the two materials was inspired by haute-couture fashion, which is often sewn and assembled meticulously by hand, and her production process follows a similarly painstaking approach.

Link: www.valentinloellmann.de

Valentin Loellmann Poetic Brass

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Build Inc Architects

The Herzog Bar & Restaurant München is located inside the New Maxburg – a post-war Modernist building designed by architects Sep Ruf and Theo Pabst in 1957 to replace the 16th century Maxburg Castle that was demolished in the Second World War. It is one of a small number of protected Modernist buildings in the city.This space truly adopts period-specific virtues and ideologies, where clear and functional forms were revived, in turn opposing the former and more abundant decorative gestures now protected throughout Munich.A set of brass strips running along the floor and up the walls is intended to guide visitors through the space.The same material is also used to create branch-like lighting fixtures in front of the large windows, and to provide a frame for the sofas in the lounge area.

Link: www.buildinc.ch

Herzog Restaurant

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Odd Mater

A lamp has a particularly interesting transformation as it changes to deliver something which is not initially there. It exists to deliver light, but light does not take any part of the physicality of the object. This suggests that a lamp is a sculptural object when light isn’t present and its function begins with its transformation towards delivering light. A lamp is therefore a medium between us and light, and the act of turning it on and off is essential as well as symbolic in relation to the object. The Amsterdam-based studio Odd Mater wanted to explain the making and breaking of a circuit, so created a series of copper lights that turn the line drawings of electrical diagrams into a 3D form.Node aims at being a very direct and simple way of describing this through how you use it; by opening or closing the electric circuit you turn the light off and on. Inspired in shape and workings by the universal language and simplicity of drawn electrical diagrams. Creating an intuitive schematic lamp that describes its function and bares its workings.

Link: www.oddmatterstudio.com

Node Light

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Carapace

Carapace is a scientific term used to define a protective, decorative or camouflaging shell found on the back of creatures such as beetles and turtles. This notion of creating a ‘hard skin’ to protect a soft body was the starting point for Dutch artist Maarten Baas’ furniture series that carries the same name.The robust, curved volumes of Carapace draw on the Dutch designer’s admiration of the 1950s refrigerator, combining these with organic forms found in nature. Comprised of an armchair, desk, cupboard, and small and wide cabinets, each of these pieces is characterised by a patchwork of bronze plating, dot welded piece-by-piece, forming the skin or ‘shell’ of the furniture, acting as a protective shield, similar to a turtle shell. Collectively, the pieces reflect the idea of protection in harmony with beauty. It is enveloped by a hard metal exterior that consequently conveys the evolution of the very fine interior where treasure can hide.

Link: www.maartenbaas.com

Maarten Baas6art

At the recent Milan Design Week, London design studio Pinch unveiled a limited edition of its Nim coffee table, which combines plaster and resin composite material Jesmonite with powdered copper.Similarly to the original Nim table, launched at last year’s London Design Festival, the updated version was created using Jesmonite cast in a mould to create tapering sides and a smooth, flat tabletop.This time, however, Pinch added fine powdered copper to create a metallic finish.Jesmonite was ultimately selected because it has excellent casting properties and can replicate very fine details. The addition of the metal flex reveals the copper content when burnished back.To create the colour graduation on the sides of the piece, the designers used a combination of blowtorch work, hand painting, and cold patination – a process by which a copper object develops a thin layer of oxidised metal on its surface.

Link: www.pinchdesign.com

Nim Coffee Table

Pinch Design7furniture

LaSelva

LaSelva is a design studio operating from Spain and Mexico. Founders Manuel Bañó and David Galvañ offer a range of products based on user needs and profiles, with an emphasis on quality and new materials. Loop is a minimalistic wall hook whose highly efficient configuration makes shipping and storage an easy task. It offers users multiple orientations and functions depending on installation orientation, increasing the pieces’ utility.

Link: www.laselva.com

Loop Wall Hook

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The Weaver Collection, by Taiwanese Toast Living, is a series of metal tools for making tea. The products – a tea jar and two infusers made from copper and stainless steel – were named for their pattern, which mimics traditional bamboo-weaving textures. Besides the obvious use, the designers incorporated a scooping mechanism, provided in the infuser’s silicone lid. The Weaver Collection is simple and stylish, with a delicacy catered to the tea drinking experience. The copper infuser can also be used as teaspoon.

Link: www.toastliving.com

Weaver Collection

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Korean designer Chaehoon Moon has created a tableware collection called Damoon with a unique know-how derived from the secrets of ancient Korean traditions. Damoon tableware references and resembles both the full moon and new moon. Each collection comprises one large-sized bowl that can be used for various purposes and two plates of different sizes. The pieces are made from resilient, and long-lasting natural materials such as yuhgee, a Korean metal, and ott-chil, a Korean lacquer.Yuhgee is an alloy of copper and tin that has heat and cold preserving properties. It has been used for generations in Korean royal and noble families because of its subtle and elegant gloss. In Korean tradition it is called ‘bowl of life’ because its colour was said to change to black when in contact with food containing toxic ingredients, warning the person using it.

Link: www.chaehoonmoon.com

Chaehoon MoonDamoon Collection

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Eddy SykesScaffold Los Angeles-based artist and designer Eddy Sykes pays homage to the work horse of architectural construction in his latest work, Scaffold.Made of solid bronze and carrara marble, the functional sculpture is a testament to the ubiquitous tool that rarely receives the recognition it deserves. Scaffold is accurate in terms of history and engineering, the latter of which allows the piece to support two 250lb slabs over a span of eight feet. Sykes has released the Scaffold table, which he built personally, as a limited-edition series. Custom configurations and stone types are available by commission only.

Link: www.eddysykes.com

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Singaporean studio OWMF Architecture, led by Yong Sy Lyng, has translated water works infrastructure into a cohesive interior for Odyssey Capital, a finance and investment firm. The design was inspired by water and an image of water infrastructure on the client’s website. Copper pipes – the same ones used for water pipes in buildings – were used to make a wave-like screen between the reception, meeting and work areas. At times, the porous screen allows light through the various spaces within the well-lit, airy shophouse with a high, sloped ceiling. At other times, the screen catches the light and dematerialises to form a soft fluid filter. The three-dimensional screen provides privacy through layering, though allowing views through at certain angles. The screen is made using modular units similar to the water infrastructure. The colours of water were chosen to highlight certain architectural elements and to subtly suggest the water theme. It is also the colour of the copper patina when the copper wave ages over time.

Link: www.owmf.net

OWMF ArchitectureOdyssey Capital

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