Arguably one of the busiest designers this year at Milano Salone is Nendo. They designed…. let’s just say, A LOT of products. An excessive amount. Oki Sato is debuting products with Glas Italia, the prestigious Italian glassware company who, in the past, has tapped design heavyweights like Shiro Kuramata, Naoto Fukasawa and Tokujin Yoshioka.
He designed 2 items: “mirror chair,” a self-explanatory piece of furniture that employs a frosted gradiation, and “deep sea,” a table and storage unit that uses blue hues to also create a gradient effect.
Not to leave their Japanese brethren behind, Nendo also collaborated with Conde House to design several items. “Fold” is a bookshelf made from zig-zaging interlocking wooden boards that allow books to be displayed in 2 different directions. All of Conde House’s furniture is crafted by artisans at a mill in Asahikawa, Hokkaido, and this bookshelf is no exception. “The joints appear seamless, as though single boards have been bent and interwoven like paper chains or a woven textile,” says Nendo. “It’s virtually impossible to know, looking at the shelves, how the parts are connected.”
They’ve also designed “Splinter Collection,” a series of furniture that is inspired by nature; in particular, the way bark pares away from wood.
This post is part of our review of the 2013 Milano Salone del Mobile. All posts are cataloged right here.
