QIÁO CHAIR
DESIGN BY VILLE KOKKONEN
Design a new chair that can be stacked, like solving a puzzle. The top surface and the bottom should be kept flat to ensure neat interlocking. The weight should be balanced and the structure stable to ensure it does not tip over. While meeting these basic conditions, the stacking should not appear clumsy, which is the challenge faced by Finnish designer Ville Kokkonen.
Perhaps simplicity is enough to achieve the design goal more easily. By eliminating the redundancy in furniture design, we return to the basic form of the chair, and the Qiáo Chair is born. The simple presentation is quite challenging in terms of detail design, requiring clever interlocking to achieve. The Qiáo Chair uses cylindrical legs that are thicker in the middle and thinner at both ends, making the overall form more slender and lively.
The designer connects the chair's uprights to the cylindrical legs with mortise-and-tenon joints, complemented by 5mm thin multi-ply wood panels, to minimize the gaps between each other as much as possible, making the overall lines more concise and smooth. The structural stability allows for the cancellation of the triangular wooden support, extending the simplicity to the bottom. The seat surface is contoured to fit the human body, forming a curve, making sitting more comfortable. The bottom also bends in sync, bringing a visual pleasure like flowing water.
The slightly curved backrest is hand-wrapped with kraft paper cord, tightly and seamlessly, ensuring durability and a natural texture to the touch.
Employing the same design elements and structure, we have also designed the Qiáo Coffee Table that can be paired with the chair. The same height ensures that when placed together, they can seamlessly connect with each other, creating a harmonious visual effect in the space.
The Qiáo series was created in Hangzhou, China—a city renowned for its numerous bridges. From West Lake and Qiantang River to the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and various other waterways, Qiáo (meaning "bridge" in Chinese) unite the city by linking its different areas. With the Qiáo series, the brand aspires to bridge the gap between different cultures and lifestyles.
DESIGNER:VILLE KOKKONEN
Ville Kokkonen (b.1975 in Finland) is a Finnish industrial designer. His Swiss based office centers on a project portfolio that is driven by technological and scientific discovery.
Kokkonen’s work, which integrates multiple disciplines, spans product design, material and cultural research, crafts, applied sciences and engineering. His works are often results of examined projections towards healthier living conditions and sustainable approach to problem solving.
Kokkonen has lectured in numerous institutions and 2017-2021 held a professorship in furniture design at Aalto university, School of Arts Design and Architecture.
PALETTE TABLE LAMP
DESIGN BY STUDIOSOSLOW
Jianze's first desk lamp adds a new form of companionship between the brand and the user in the space. The object design studio studiososlow excavates the form of the lamp within Jianze's brand visual system, selecting the brand symbol '0' from many possibilities, deconstructing it into three semicircles and stacking them with a certain arrangement of offsets, ultimately creating a geometric combination resembling a palette.
The two panels of the lamp form the main frame of the lighting fixture, with the central spherical light source exposed and suspended within the frame. The interplay between the flat and the solid geometric elements presents a visual rhythm of the convergence of the real and the virtual.
The surface of the lamp's panels is coated with high-gloss PU paint, which gives the color a rich luster. The metal parts that connect the frame have also been mirror-polished, complementing the strong presence of the design, allowing it to serve as a beautiful decorative piece in the room even when the light is off.
With the infinite adjustment knob, the Palette Table Lamp can respond to the scene at any time, providing different lighting atmospheres according to the changing needs.
The base of the desk lamp is engraved with the brand logo and the designer's name, making the original design more valuable as a collectible item.
DESIGNER:STUDIOSOSLOW
Studiososlow is based in Shanghai, China, offering creative direction, product and installation design.
Studiososlow is a multidisciplinary creative studio which focuses its forms, materials and sences in everyday life, and transforming into objects.