About the thrilling Bone Chair Project. Text - Phil Verdult. - May 26, 2008
About the thrilling Bone Chair Project.
Text - Phil Verdult. - May 26, 2008
A phone call from droog mid 2006, in search for a solution asking about our LOST FOAM casting capabilities, brought me for the first time in contact with Mister Joris Laarman and his vision of bringing his digital virtual bone chair into the real world.
It was in the first meeting after this initial phone call that I was informed about the project and became aware of its hidden 'technical' problems.
By now, everybody knows about the Bone Chair. How it looks like, how it feels..... , simple, because it is 'there'.
By then, I knew nothing.... , because there was nothing.
So....I had
to find out...; " what is in Joris Laarmans brain and how can I grasp his
vision? "
Luckily, the design path was already in a semi final stage, so I could watch
some images of the developing digital Bone Chair.
Wow, nice and elegant, but.......how to bring this into the real world and.....then...that fast (!!first days of December at ART Basel in Miami !!)...... the bones hand sanded to a silky shine and the seat and back polished to a high gloss.......oh....and as a 1 piece casting, please!
No way this could be done by the powerful LOST FOAM Technology.
Intrigued by the quest I asked a week for consideration, before I gave my word to go for it.
What followed is history.
December 2006 - the Aluminium Bone Chair Prototype arrived exultantly, as One Piece Casting, at the ART Basel in Miami to deepen Joris Laarmans repute even further and again after his famous Heatwave. By now we can congratulate Mr. Laarman with his successes, but I can't help feeling personal pride that this Aluminium Cast Prototype we made is acquired (early 2008) by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Not to mention the fact that from the edition of 12, we were so lucky to be commissioned to cast, such a great number is obtained by notable museums and collections such as the Vitra Museum in Germany and The Central Museum of The Netherlands. Of course, the credits for this are fully and undivided to Mr. Joris Laarman, but we thank him to have chosen for Gravotech to do this materializing job of his original digital design. This way we were given the opportunity to be part of this thrilling project. I wouldn't have missed it for the world.
For those interested in 'How did he do it', I will post a short story on this topic soon (please come look for this after July 1, 2008) under the working title;
How did I Unravel the Knotty Bone Chair Project Demands ?
Hint;
it matured into a close Double Dutch Cooperation between
Phil Verdult Casting and
Benno Koomen of
3Dprotyping.nl
using CAD/CASTTM
and 3D Printing .
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link to
Rotterdam, Joris Laarman's Site link to New York, Barry Friedman's Site link to Amsterdam, Droog's Site |
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