What’s in a name when a Castle exhibits a concrete chair in the garden of a real castle?
American sculptor and furniture designer Wendell Castle is renowned for his remarkable level of craftsmanship and innovative use of materials, including fiberglass, wood, concrete and plastic. Concrete Chair. is a highly tactile work which has been cast in concrete, its surface articulated by the subtle brilliance of tiny mineral particles recalling ancient porphyry. With their highly biomorphic contours, these chairs invite tactile interaction and demonstrate an almost animate presence – as if emulating the fluid, graceful contours of a Manta Ray, or emanating from the cache of Science Fiction imagery. In this work a tripod base supports an organic, enshrouding seat forming a silhouette which blurs the distinctions between a high art sculpture and utilitarian design object. Indeed, the artist himself observed, ‘the significant thing about my work is not what it is made of but what it is. I would like always to be free to explore all aspects of the useful objects we refer to as ‘furniture’.’
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Sotheby’s has teamed up with London Based carpenters workshop gallery and organized an outdoor sales exposition in the magnificent garden of Sudeley Castle in the Cotswolds (UK). Many chairs and benches are featured until August 1, 2010.
Into concrete a bit so another concrete bench:
Concept of a Concrete Water Bench by Nina Edwards Anker.
This concrete energy-efficient water bench is designed for public parks, cafes, outdoor train, ferry, bus stations and other waiting areas in extreme climates.
It is heated from the earth’s energy in cold climates through an underground pipe system. It is cooled in hot climates from pipes connecting to fresh water or to the existing urban water system.
This project explores digital fabrication of non-standard concrete formwork.
Via Nea.
About Nea
Nea was established in 2006 by Nina Edwards Anker and is based in in Grunneløke, Oslo, Norway.
Nina Edwards Anker was born and raised in New York City. She graduated with a Master in Architecture from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design in 2001 after having completed two years at the Architectural Association and a year at Sotheby’s in London. After a couple of years of teaching at Pratt and 4 years of experience in architectural firms in Manhattan and Oslo, Nina started nea studio in 2006. Since then, she has been living and working both in Oslo and in New York City.
Cleaning up and talking of concrete…I had these photos of a Concrete Element Bench on my computer for ages. I pinched them somewhere from a German site, hence they are coined Sitz Beton, which means as much as concrete to sit on.
3,750 kg of concrete to sit on royally…
They are from …. Stizbeton.de
Schwing is not a typo for showing. Schwing is German for Rocking. This Rocking Stool is designed by Ismail Özalbayrak, a design student at the HfbK Hamburg.
It consists of a very light upper part, made of painted fiberglass and a concrete lower part.
Due to its unique shape it stays in balance all the time.
The stool will be produced by Stilwerk GmbH in Germany. Stilwerk is German for Style Work :-)
You’ve made a rocking use of concrete, Ismail!
I’ve borrowed this photo from a blog that indicated it didn’t want to be advertized here, but I was allowed to keep the photo….
Added August 24, 2009:
I found a better photo of Josefine Premberg’s concrete armchair at HD.SE
Last edited by gje on February 2, 2010 at 6:16 PM
autoclaved cellular concrete is a foamed concrete containing a high volume of air in a cell-like structure. the material is five times lighter than concrete, highly insulating and easily machined making it perfect for turning on a lathe;
Via DesignBoom
Added October 2009 :
This post is part of an experiment to automate the import of 20 of my prior Charblog | Tumblr tumblrings into this blog via Chairblog | Posterous which initially resulted in 20 posts without a title whereupon I had to edit it manually… Experiment failed:-)
