Bamboo Bench By Dirk Meylaerts

Bamboo Bench by Dirk MeylaertsDimensions: W 50 x D 163 x H 20 cmMaterials: Cherrywood.What happens if you transmit the language of industrial piping found in the ceilings of factories into a wooden bench? The coldness of the metal transforms into the classy modesty of a Japanese tea ceremony table.Biography:After a short career as an actor and dancer in Jan Fabre’s theatre piece The Power of Theatrical Madness, he decided to pursue a career in furniture making. He studied cabinetmaking at Les Arts et Metiers in Brussels and trained under master cabinet maker Ralf Hillenbrand, who taught him all the technical aspects of the craft. After three years, he began working as an independent cabinet maker and designer, a career that spanned 25 years. In 2003, he organized several auction sales of prototypes by fellow designers, in collaboration with the auction house Pierre Bergé in Brussels. In 2006, he founded D&A Lab, a company that produced limited series of functional design objects, conceived by contemporary artists such as Jonathan Monk, Pierre Bismuth, Ann Veronica Janssens, Koen Van den Broek, and many others. The company regularly participated in Design Basel, Design Miami, Form London, and other events. In 2012, he was invited to become the director of production at the Fondation des Galeries Lafayette in Paris, a role that allowed him to collaborate with artists like Lutz Bacher, Hella Jongerius, Katinka Bock, Tarik Kiswanson, and Martin Margiela. In 2020, like many others, the Corona pandemic led him to reassess his life’s work. Together with his family, he decided to leave the city and move to the French countryside to rekindle his old passion for cabinetmaking.