l’Armoire
catalogue
Purple Books / Kreo
1999
A TIDYING UP OPERATION
Olivier Zahm / Bernard Joisten
PROGRAMME. The use of the software.
Not computer furniture but furniture for the computer age. Interior design. Computer design. The virtual intrudes on the quotidian and vice versa. One material, layered aluminium and plastic, one process: programmed folding, the passage from plan to volume, from two to three dimensions. Not the ghost in the machine but a ghostly machine in the background of the abstraction. The ghost figures which have come to haunt the shape. The memory of the punched card in an old music box. Tron, a polygonal aesthetic. Nintendo 64, Toy’s Story, a digital signature, calculated furniture, a vectorial wardrobe. Not like the Donald Judd module – more towards computerised model making.
SHOE BOX. Outline, cut out, fold, store. Visible processes. The memory of the production line. Programmed, cut out, folded, the shapeless shape of the process which spreads into everyday life. Rationality, readability of the system with the seductive edge of technology. The shape and the function are no longer separate. The aesthetic is functional and the functional is there to be seen and appreciated. Beyond style, beyond genre. The piece of furniture virtually disappears: flattening is always an option. The potential for change. Morphing, erratic, volatile, duplicity, simplicity, multi-purpose forms and functions.
FASHION. Imitating industrial material cutting methods. Flat clothing, over-sized clothing (Martin Margiela). Playing with scale. A universe of expansion. Furniture as clothing, to wrap a body of documents, objects, clothing.
FACILITY. Lightness, floating furniture, like leaves in the wind. Variable spaces. Office/bedroom. Work/play. Interior/exterior. Aesthetic on two levels. Innumerable possible uses: CD’s, confidential files, personal correspondence, bills, books, linen, objects… A receptacle adapted to the constraints of absolute diversity. Contact ergonomics. Sensorial ecology. A total lack of joins, welding, flexible links. The relationship between the parts themselves is light as the link between function and presence.
ORIGAMI. A mixture of the extreme fragility of the folded form and the tough reality of business. Aluminium origami. Storage space for zaibatsus and bedrooms. A double identity. Public/private. A playful proposition straight from the realm of the imaginary and playground.
TECHNOLOGY. Fluidity, the efficiency of materials: flexibility, rigidity, tension, adaptation, water-proof, sportsmanship. A touch of the anorak, Prada sport. A composite material, with two purposes: solid exterior/extremely supple interior. The technology of comfort of a pair of Nike or Reebok trainers. Discreet in effect and style. Cut industrially – folded with extreme precision – the architecture of shape impossible to detect on the radars of style.