Design & Architecture

At the Meet My Project design exposition in Paris this week, simplicity was a major theme: boiling down products to their basics to get the most out of the materials used to make them. That’s especially true of the work presented by Naruse Inokuma Architects, a young Japanese design office. The group created the From One Sheet chair (even the name is simple and straightforward): an armchair made from a single sheet of plywood, cut, bent, and held together by a single steel rod.
Yuri Naruse and Jun Inokuma explain their work:
The process is to insert cuts into a sheet of plywood and carefully bend each strip to create the overall shape. It naturally forms a place to sit while highlighting the inherent potential and beauty of plywood.
When used, it is a chair that gently supports the human body. When not used, it is like a sculpture made of plywood.
The sculpture bit may be something of stretch, but the chair is surprisingly comfortable, elegant in its simplicity, and among the cooler bent plywood furniture we’ve seen. It’s complemented by the second work presented at Meet My Project by Naruse Inokuma: the Clothes Poles.
This time, the team jumped from a single sheet of plywood to five wooden poles. The poles do not touch, but are held together by a system of strings, determined by the principles of tensegrity. Together, they make a unique coat stand, which the designers describe as “strong yet flexible.” Don’t forget simple, and cool-looking to boot.

(Source: www.treehugger.com )