Barstool 01 —
A cast bronze barstool designed as my own project and produced by Materialise and HVH foundry. The design and development lasted six months and the barstool was first introduced on Designblok and DutchDesignWeek in 2009. The barstools are produced to order in a wide variety of finishes. We have produced eleven casts so far.
I usually aim to make things that are universal in their usefulness and appeal, staying close to the definition of design. On the other hand here I found it appealing to interpret the universal furniture logic of a barstool through a creation process that ignores tight technical demands of the industry and is very personal and characteristic.
I was curious to combine the reductional and practical thinking of furniture design with the freeform flair, personalized feel and material spectrum of the sculpting world. The result is a barstool that has the individualistic appeal, rich surface quality, workmanship status and the value of an artwork, but at the same time it has the functionality, construction, ergonomics, stackability and pleasure of use of a furniture piece.
Facing the option to work with bronze casting my thoughts were oscillating around freeform sculpture. I associate this material with classical sculpture work in public space characterized by rigid waving fabrics, precise embossed and debossed detailing, massive undercuts and rich surface textures that flourish with age. These elements feel wonderfully alien to what a furniture piece usually is and they inspired me in the process.
The structure of the barstool is strictly logical and has been developed on upside down string models in a way similar to Antoni Gaudí's system for cathedral arch construction. It is still apparent even in the finished cast that the barstool is a set of fixed points with straight connections at very natural angles. This system of work leads to very harmonic and obvious geometric forms. —
In contrast to that – and in full unity with my interpretation of bronze work – I applied a sculpted skin onto this logical gravitational scaffolding. I looked at the composition and shapes of insect legs, human bones and muscles and the growth logic of plants to generate a modelling language that can be applied uniformly to the frame of the barstool. To be able to work freely on fluent forms but to actually achieve precise symmetry and details I sculpted the forms digitally using hypernurbs mesh modelling. Along with that I produced several mockups from plastic tubing to test the proportions, stackability and sitting position. The finished digital model was then 3D printed and cast into bronze.
This mix of virtual sculpting using freeform mesh surfaces, 3D printing as the output method into material and bronze casting creates a functional barstool which partially conceals its function in its forms and materiality deceiving the casual observer about its practical features. It is a combination of the newest technologies with some of the oldest casting processes. The whole stool is cast in one piece using a technique that allows for hollow casting with fluently changing wall thickness of 2 to 4mm which keeps the weight reasonable.
Bronze allows various oxidation and galvanic surface finishes. Also bronze is a material that ages in the most amazing way because the oxidation on the surface will continue depending on the environmental conditions. Areas of contact (seat, grips, footrests) will get polished into gold, perhaps again hinting to the functional aspect of the object. The edge of the seat and the footrests feature a rough extruded goose-bump pattern that prevents slipping off. It has two hand grips in the back to allow for comfortable sit-down and for moving it around. The grips are also hooks on which you can hang your bag or your jacket. The surface of each barstool is finished with carnauba wax to achieve smooth shine and to replace the metallic scent of bronze with a pleasant light smell. — M Ch
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2 — When nobody sits on the barstool it turns into an ambiguous organic object that shows only little signs of furniture functionality.
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4 — Rough extruded patterns on the footrests prevent slipping off. Good grip for the shoes helps the overall feeling of stability when sitting. This is quite essential when sitting high.
5 — A rich oxidation process continually happens on the surface of the material in response to surrounding conditions. The autumn-colored tones appear first and then they gradually age into a dark caramel tone. As the seat is used it gets polished back into shiny gold. This process is natural and gives the functional sculpture an ever-changing appeal and a real sense of ageing.
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7 — Barstool 01 in mirror polished copper finish. The naked bronze cast is covered in copper using a galvanic electrolytic bath and is then hand polished to create this exaggerated kitsch surface effect.
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Object details —
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13 — A mixture of on-top and horizontal stacking gives the large bronze cast a ridiculously practical aspect which is in tact with the functional sculpture concept.
