We final noticed Martin Szekely on the Louvre, for which he had designed a variety of seating, introduced in 2021. Whereas the benches for public use have been completed in leather-based, the opposite items within the assortment soberly highlighted their pure traces in nude oak multi-ply, with grain and layering made manifest on the edge. Now, for Tectona, the designer, who can also be a talented cabinetmaker, has turned as soon as once more to wooden with ‘Soleil’ (that means ‘solar’), a group of three outside furnishings items – an armchair, a footrest and a espresso desk.
Martin Szekely and Tectona: furnishings taking part in with daylight
(Picture credit score: Courtesy Tectona)
This time he has chosen larch, which represents a small revolution for Tectona, a producer recognized for its merchandise in teak. Simply as resistant, larch has the large benefit of not being an endangered species. ‘Larch comes from our areas,’ explains Szekely. ‘It turns silver-grey when it comes into contact with precipitation and is a rot-proof species, so subsequently sturdy. Above all, it is vitally lovely and gentle to the contact.’
The tactility of larch has right here been augmented by the very explicit approach by which the wooden has been lower, permitting the hand to slip alongside its curves regardless of the hollows that pit the floor right here and there. A number of prototypes have been required to achieve the specified perfection of meeting, which was achieved utilizing a digitally managed device. Solely on this approach may Szekely get hold of the refined play of daylight passing via each bit to attract all kinds of shapes on the bottom.
(Picture credit score: Courtesy Tectona)
‘It wasn’t a lot the type of the article that was essential however relatively the consequences of sunshine falling on it,’ he explains. ‘The shadows it casts are consistently altering with the course of the solar.’ This concept of designing from the viewpoint of an object’s projection will come as no shock to connoisseurs of Szekely’s oeuvre or to those that noticed his 2011 Centre Pompidou present, ‘Ne plus dessiner’.
The Tectona collaboration as soon as once more illustrates Szekely’s insistence on holding a sure distance with respect to his work for manufacturers and his refusal to design ‘signature’ objects for any such shopper. ‘The distinctive or limited-edition items I make underneath my very own title are the results of analysis I’ve been endeavor for the previous 40 years,’ he explains. ‘Once I’m designing for manufacturers, it could actually solely, so far as I see it, be an expression of the model’s historical past, its DNA, and never an expression of my persona.’ Which works to indicate what a rarity the ‘Soleil’ sequence represents within the profession of a designer whose quest for purity is extra used to collectible items and museum commissions than to large-scale manufacturing. It took all of Tectona’s unparalleled savoir-faire to persuade Szekely to make an exception to the rule.
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