NEW YORK – A decade of quantum technological leaps means today's designers have in their hands a virtually bottomless toy box of new materials and methods.
Associated Press
Vetrazzo, maker of a cobalt Skyy vanity counter (left) and millefiori counter, uses recycled dishes and other items.
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Take the award-winning installation “Lightshowers” put on by DuPont Corian at this year's International Contemporary Furniture Fair. Egg-like polished rocks and smooth slabs of Corian were underlit, with nature sounds generated from a hypersonic speaker. When a person crossed the sound wave's path, it essentially “woke” the sound.
Or look at Vetrazzo, a Richmond countertop maker that turns a good portion of the state's recyclables – old traffic lights, curbside trash, windows, even dishware factory rejects – into chic countertops.
The technology boom echoes an earlier era: The icons of early 20th century Modernism – Breuer, Le Corbusier, van der Rohe, Gray, the Eameses and others – eagerly adapted machine-age materials like tubular steel and molded plywood into furniture that was new, daring and still accessible.
Now, advances are not just industrial – they're green. Eco-friendly paints and adhesives, water-driven machinery, precision lasers, even organic powder coatings for steel are all relatively new technologies borne of the industry's desire to balance style and stewardship.
With computers, designs are generated, presented and communicated digitally for what the industry calls “rapid prototyping and manufacturing.” What it means is that software helps the designer draw, say, a chair, then it creates a 3D prototype in a few hours, which can then be produced with minimal waste in a variety of customizations, a process that used to take months.
Emmanuel Plat, president of ConranUSA, is excited about the technology used by a Swedish design firm called Front.
“An artist uses a special pen to sketch her design in the air – she can't even see what she's drawing,” he said. “A motion capture camera records her strokes, then the image is prototyped – the process is really remarkable.”
But does the “wow factor” translate into useful furniture? Max Shangle, chair of the furniture design program at Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids, Mich., says products made with revolutionary technology must still resonate with the consumer.
“The question isn't, 'Can we make it?' but 'Should we make it?' At the end of the day, we have to produce things that appeal to and satisfy the consumer,” he said. “Using a radical new material isn't enough.”
In his book, “The Design of Everyday Things,” Donald Norman chides those who put artistry or gadgetry before good design. “Well designed objects are easy to understand,” he writes.
