48 new materials - Material ConneXion

Photos: © Colleen Noonan
Woven nito chair by Shigeru Uchida Woven seagrass chair by Karim Rashid
Superstar interior designer Kevin Walz freely
admits that he hadn’t paid much attention
to bamboo until he chose to work with it for
Transformations. Conventional treatments,
he had found, tended to disguise or homogenize
its natural properties, thus stripping
it of its “vibrancy and life.” In his own three
building products, he sought to preserve
these qualities. Walz predicts great things
for bamboo: “[It] will certainly outperform
cedar as a siding material. Bamboo will take
on a silvery richness once the sun hits it,
which will bring a warm, rustic quality to the
[building’s] surface.”
Although intrigued by all the materials presented
to them, the Rockwell Group settled
on coconut shell, a material not usually associated
with the design or architecture
fields. Rockwell’s design, a coconut-chip
screen, embraces variance and encourages
variants. The Group can see altering
the chips’ size, shape, and color, “while the
curtain itself could appear in any length or
width desired.” Moreover, a bamboo frame
could quickly take the concept from curtain
to cabinet.
Most of the furniture items, floor and ceiling
tiles, and screens developed through the initiative
are still at the prototype stage, with
testing needed to determine both levels of
stability and environmental ratings (due to
some of the resins used). However, having
come this far, Beylerian is confident that
testing and any necessary improvements
can be made quickly: “Basically, our role
thus far has been one of consulting and developing
projects and we would now be happy
to take the next step.” The exhibition’s
reception at ICFF will inform the participating
parties about the best ways to market
and distribute the items. One line of furniture—benches,
tables and stools designed
by Karim Rashid—is already installed in the
Semiramis Hotel, Athens, the location for
which they were exclusively designed.
From May 20 to 23, Material ConneXion will
preview Transformations: Nature & Beyond
at the International Contemporary Furniture
Fair, NYC. By highlighting the sophistication
of natural materials, the Transformations
exhibit will undoubtedly generate interest in
the Philippine marketplace. It is also expected
to inform other materials-rich countries
about Material ConneXion’s ability to open
up new and vital markets globally.
OF MATERIAL INTEREST
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