18 03 2014

A while ago we wrote about the Eigen Huis & Interieur (EH&I) top 25 Dutch designers of 2013. Did you miss it? Read it here.

This time we will focus at the number 8 of the list: sir Smoky furniture and playful Clay series Maarten Baas, who is already present in the Dutch design world for years. One of his graduation concepts Smoke from 2002 is well known and bought by various museums as the Victoria & Albert Museum, Groninger Museum, and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. “Furniture finished with fire.” as Moooi describes the series. This short introduction says it all:

introduction to the Smoke series

Maarten Baas is not an average product designer, and his works are not easily to grasp with the term ‘products’. ‘Piece’ does better fit to the work of this designer, which also fits the facts that Baas’ works are also shown in different museums over the world. Baas’ work gives something extra. There is another layer present in every series, a second intention included in every piece. It seems that anti-technological and playful elements are the red-threat through his work. The pieces of the Smoke series are adjusted by fire, the Clay objects are customized with an uncommon material in cheerful colors, and the elements Porcelain tableware series Haphazard Harmony don’t contain any straight line or corner. Once you are aware of these characteristics and elements, you’ll definitely recognize any piece created by this designer. Here a selection:

Clay Dining Chair

Plain Clay Table Light

its big brother in EH&I magazine: the Plain Clay Floor Light

Plain Clay Bench

Plain Clay Side Table in three colors

Clay Table with Drawer

porcelain tableware series Haphazard Harmony

Smoke Chair

Smoke Piano

Smoke Chair, original design: Gerrit T. Rietveld’s 1918 Red and Blue chair

“Hey, chair, be a bookshelf!”

Sculpt

A project with in a whole other medium, but with the same playfulness and conceptual background is the Analog Digital clock, a practically working clock and video performance in one. In this clock, it’s not a little machine who shows you what time it is, but an actor who took exactly one minute to create every minute the clock displays! The total length of the clock is twelve hours, shot in twelve hours. A conceptual recursion, in an iconic visual form, great! For the reader who gets excited, there is an app-version available for only 0,89 €! Here a short five minute preview of the Analog Digital clock:

Five minutes preview video of Analog Digital Clock

Read our biography of Maarten Baas here.
Click here to see Maarten Baas’ products in our Dutch Living shop.