Woven Long Bench 190 By Max Lipsey

Woven Long Bench 190 by Max LipseyDimensions: D 54 x W 190 x H 46 cm.Materials: Steel, Kvadrat canvas, and fabric.Custom with Kvadrat Canvas and RAL colors. Custom lengths in 20cm increments. Please contact us. Woven Bench is the result of a close study of the Canvas textile. Zooming in and looking very closely at Canvas, I became intrigued by the strength that weaving imparts to the fine wool fibres, the tactile quality, and the optical effects of the unexpected colour combinations. I particularly wanted to explore the paradox of soft yet strong qualities that result from weaving. The idea of ‘soft strength’ at first seems contradictory or silly. But I’m reminded of the saying, ‘The wind does not break a tree that bends’: simple wisdom, and a more effective approach than reliance on strength alone.I work a lot with steel and was attracted to the idea of adding a ‘soft’ quality to the strength of steel: steel and softness have quite contrary associations. Using steel strips instead of threads, I scaled up the weave of the Canvas. At this size – two millimetres wide – steel strips are rather flimsy. The longest ones, over three metres, are barely able to support their weight. The structure produced in weaving them together brings a spring-like tension to the bench, allowing it to support a body with just a bit of soft give. Cladding each strip in a different colour of the Canvas textile adds to the feeling of softness: a surprising one for a steel bench.Atelier Max Lipsey is the workshop of Max Lipsey, an American designer based in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.After receiving a BA at New York University, he graduated from the Design Academy Eindhoven Bachelors in 2007. His studio, since 2008, has been a personal platform to develop and self-produce his designs, work with companies on mass production, and reach out to initiate group projects.Max's work follows his fascinations with nature, material, craft, history, and making…and translating these fascinations into an object. After an intellectually based education in the US, Max has been delving into a more intuitive, hands-on way of working...letting his ideas come from interactions with material and observations at the moment rather than an intellectual structure. Through this way of working, he strives to find more authentic, surprising ideas.Max's biggest design goal is to challenge what we make industrially to be more spontaneous and vital.