Balance
Design
Chiuet Table - Jeong Seung Jun
I chose this table by Jeong Seung for technical purposes as it is used to make this table extremely light and perfect balance. Asian minimalist style is evident in this work. The table combines sobriety, discretion and stability. With the resistance profiles of industrial pipes and steel plates, the designer has made a table that give us the impression of being levitated in the air. Indeed, only three tubes arranged asymmetrically are used to maintain the top of the table and creating balance and special dynamics.
We can also see that the balance that is found in the contrast between the delicacy of tubes and solid surface top. The designer emphasizes this aspect in the use of two different curves: straight and solid foot, round and friendly terms.
Jeong Seung chose not to use color, preferring the dark, sober, which can enhance the sleek lines of the table. Furthermore, when we look at the profile table, it seems obvious that the designer is inspired by Japanese calligraphy; black would be used as an ink drawing in space reasons.
Chiuet Table, Jeong Seung Jun, Steel pipe, Steel sheet. H 500 x W 350 x L 520 (mm) :
DESIGN JAY. 2012. "Chiuet Table Jeong Seung Jun Steel pipe". [ONLINE] Available at:http://designjay.tumblr.com/private/10081416227/tumblr_lrd4b2R0al1qhcsi4. [Accessed 25 October 14].
Animali Domestici - Andrea Branzi
Milan, 1985, Animali Domestici, Andrea Branzi :
MUSEE NATIONAL D'ART MODERN CENTRE POMPIDOU, (2001), "Andrea Branzi" [ONLINE]. Available at : http://collection.centrepompidou.fr/mediaNavigart/oeudoc/fra/D0/20/D020344_1.htm [Accessed 07 November 14].
This bench is part of the Animali Domestici collection (literally pets), designed in 1985 by Andrea Branzi. It’s composed of two distinct parts: the seat, birch veneer and machined, and the backrest of crude birch wood.
I think this object points to the positive / negative notion, black / white, yin / yang of "balance." We can observe in the bench Animali Domestici a visual balance, technical and symbolic. Indeed, Andrea Branzi creates several contrasts between the seat and backrest.
First, we see a contrast of value / color; the seat is gray and cold, while the back is beige, warm. This contrast is enhanced by the manner he uses the birch,on one hand, it’s worked in a very industrial manner, with geometric shapes, which increases the cold side of the seat. And on the other hand, it is not machined, raw and gives this part a very warm look.
The use of two different techniques brings, for me, also a symbolic contrast ; the seat would represent the human effect and its ability to change, to work and to transform nature. Secondly it’s implying the strength of nature and the impossibility to really tame it. There is also a contrast between the transcendent verticality and the horizontality immanent sitting of the file, which is the prototype of all the values ​​of stability
Into a single object, Andrea Branzi successfully combines two large opposing design categories: we have Arte Povera firstly represented by the record, which respect nature, and secondly, the industrial precision design. This object is for me a hybrid object: it represents both the impersonality of industrialization but also the social aspect of archetypal objects.
1) Working - inspiration Andrea Branzi : http://msorin1.wix.com/blog-de-manon
-THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION-
The design history is inseparable from that of the industrial revolution. With mechanized production begins a new history of the human environment, written by industry and not just by artisans and artists. The infancy of the steam engine in the early skyscrapers, it develops by relying on technological innovation.
The first Exposition London 1851
Designed by Joseph Paxton for the London World's Fair of 1851, the Crystal Palace was built in a record time of eight months from standardized modular units, prefabricated in the factory. This hymn to the glory of Queen Victoria marked the beginning of industrial air and innovations.
The Eiffel Tower, Gustave Eiffel and Co
The Eiffel Tower (324 m) was built by Gustave Eiffel for the Universal Exhibition of 1889 celebrating the first centenary of the French Revolution. Its construction in 2 years, 2 months and 5 days, was a real technical and architectural performance. Intended to last only 20 years old, she was saved by scientific experiments that Eiffel favored, especially the first X-ray transmission and telecommunications.
The balance in the Eiffel Tower is in its perfect symmetry. If we draw a central vertical axis of the top of the tower to the ground, and on each side, we can see that by all sides it is perfectly symmetrical. His feet are four, a figure that increases peers again this symmetry. These four pillars are joined at one central point, which is the antenna at the top. Moreover, we can notice that the tower is completed in three tier, the higher the level is wide, the lower, the higher end of the bearing is therefore the tower tapers gradually as we rises. Which brings to the tower an elegant appearance and fine, extremely light. However, it remains a technological breakthrough capable of withstanding the weather, especially the wind.
Tour Eiffel, 324m Champ de Mars, 5 Avenue Anatole France, 75007 Paris, France, 28 janvier 1887 / 31 mars 1889, Ingénieurs : Maurice Koechlin, Gustave Eiffel, Émile Nouguier:
- DJCLONE. 2011. "La Tour Eiffel se dresse". [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.paris1900.fr/paris-rive-gauche/7eme-arrondissement/la-tour-eiffel-se-dresse. [Accessed 29 October 14]
- SITE DE LA TOUR. 2014. "Tout savoir sur la Tour". [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.toureiffel.paris/fr/tout-savoir-sur-la-tour-eiffel/la-tour-eiffel-en-chiffres.html. [Accessed 29 October 14].
2) Working - inspiration Eiffel Tower : http://msorin1.wix.com/blog-de-manon
-THE BAUHAUS-
Born in a defeated Germany and impoverished the Bauhaus in its early days, is not, for obvious economic reasons, turned to mass production. Its founder, Walter Gropius, especially wants train designers capable of designing anything outside of the frame, relates to the production environment.
The approach is based on a basic course, including the development and teaching are entrusted to artists from current avant-garde. It was not until 1925, with the development of the war debt and the arrival of US capital, the Bauhaus can move towards industrial production. In particular, the furniture of Marcel Breuer tubular structure, then it is recognized as a center of innovation. In 1933, the Nazis closed the school.
Fauteuil Wassily, M. Breuer
The Wassily Chair, also known as Model B3 chair, was designed by Marcel Breuer in 1925-1926 when he was at the head of the carpentry workshop at the Bauhaus in Dessau. This chair was revolutionary in its use of materials (leather and Bent steel tubes) and its manufacturing methods. The idea of using steel pipes is said that the handlebars of his bike Adler inspired him to make his chair, and this proved that it was a suitable material because readily available. If the design (and all subsequent steel furniture tubes) was technologically feasible, it was only because the German company Mannesmann manufacture of steel had just successfully produce smooth steel tubes, seamless apparent. Previously steel tubes had weld lines that would have seriously undermined the tube bending.
The balance in this chair created by two effects. Indeed, the first sense of balance is given by the symmetry of the chair that we see when we look at the chair side. The second sense of balance is created by the chair of technology, in fact, the use of curved tube allowed to remove interlaces necessary for as wide chairs, which gives us an impression of lightness and floating of the chair, as if the tubes were in equilibrium. In addition, the use of two different textures, accentuates this balance. The structure is shiny and made of steel, while all parts in contact with the body, are made of baking mat, which brings a warm dimension to the object and balance with the cold side of the steel.
Chaise Wassily, chaise modèle B3, Marcel Breuer 1925-1926 :