For the Milan Design Week 2013, architect Zaha Hadid has partnered with designers at leading street furniture label, Lab23, and created a series of urban furniture- precisely 'benches'- that derive inspiration from ice formations and glacial crevasses.
The "Serac Benches" are made from a resin and quartz composite that gives them the sparkling white color. While a single arch forms the backrest, the surface is made of a progression of smooth ridges. The benches have been designed for seating and resting and use the concept of solidified fluid in a very creatively seamless manner.
The Contemporist describes Hadid's work as:
"Developed as an urban sculpture for seating and resting, the striated articulation of the Serac Bench emerges seamlessly from the landscape, each layer taking its own unique trajectory in reaction to latent forces that disperse - and ultimately coalesce - the many strata of the bench.
The Serac Bench showcases the fluid, continuous nature of Zaha Hadid's work - exploring relationships between solid and void, object and ground, form and function; an evolutionary lineage evident throughout her repertoire. The bench has been developed in resin quartz, a tough and durable material that when shaped into dynamic curvilinear forms, transitions into a softer, fluid and tactile surface. The sparkling crystal balances a stunning light play with mesmerizing depth."
The benches will be launching this week in the district of Tortona in Milan.
About Milan Design Week:
The Milan Design Week or the 'Salone Internazionale del Mobile' is an annual furniture preview event that has been showcasing the latest furniture fads since 1961. Various designers, architects and décor firms come together to flaunt their extraordinary talents and products at the event. The 2013 design week opened on Monday, April 8 and will last until Sunday, April 14.
Check out some beautiful designs spotted at the Milan Design Week, here.
