Wood: Material / Intangible (The Four Seasons)
*Croatian Designers Association's Award for Best Student Concept 11-12
Master's Thesis in Zagreb School of Design.
Mentors: Mladen Orešić, Vedran Kasap
Experimental system dealing with life-cycle in terms of material, product and human/nature in general.
Wood is the only material whose property is life. This is what connects it with us and differs from all others materials.
I developed a concept of human/wood/product life cycle throughout four stages – birth/childhood, adolescence, maturity and old age/death; or: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.
I tried to define some of the archetypal concepts that define each phase, as the principles that build and shape these objects.
These artifacts incorporate multiple symbolic and structural processes.On material level, these are the stages from the moment of cutting, through forming, construction and finally, deconstruction.
On a symbolic level, these are ideas about meaning of each stage in the process of life and transformation from organism to an artefact. Function and form follow the product's life cycle from emergence to decay.
I tried to define some of the archetypal concepts that define each phase, as the principles that build and shape these objects.
These artifacts incorporate multiple symbolic and structural processes.On material level, these are the stages from the moment of cutting, through forming, construction and finally, deconstruction.
On a symbolic level, these are ideas about meaning of each stage in the process of life and transformation from organism to an artefact. Function and form follow the product's life cycle from emergence to decay.
Design consciously abandons solely rational methods and embraces irrational, intuition, chaos - to follow nature's paradox in construction: universal mathematical constant + pure chance.
Design methods also abandon function as priority and set emphasis on meaning of form instead.
read more (Croatian)
Spring
Childhood is a phase of discovering the world and trial/error. Children are simple, unpredictable, playful, straightforward. They play and learn for future life.
The material is young and raw, close to its organic form - we can recognize branching, thin crust, flexibility, rawness. This is its least predictable phase.
Paradoxically, this phase requires most commitment. Interaction with the material takes a lot of patience.
Construction is built with the most primitive methods, by the principle of trial and error, from the most basically processed elements.
Form of the artefact is in raw emergence, as well as its function.
For Spring phase, I used young, just cut off branches with characteristic flexibility and moisture.
Treatment is challenging and requires a lot of effort.
Wood species I used are beech, walnut, and some of the fruit trees.
The material is young and raw, close to its organic form - we can recognize branching, thin crust, flexibility, rawness. This is its least predictable phase.
Paradoxically, this phase requires most commitment. Interaction with the material takes a lot of patience.
Construction is built with the most primitive methods, by the principle of trial and error, from the most basically processed elements.
Form of the artefact is in raw emergence, as well as its function.
For Spring phase, I used young, just cut off branches with characteristic flexibility and moisture.
Treatment is challenging and requires a lot of effort.
Wood species I used are beech, walnut, and some of the fruit trees.
Summer
Youth is a time of searching and defining attitudes, rebellion and independence. We are being formed as individuals while the same time, creating relationships with other people. One reaches his full size and final form. This is the most dynamic phase our life.
In this phase, the material gets its technological form as timber that precedes future constructions.
The material is susceptible to external influences in terms of swelling, drying or bending.
For this second phase, I used veneer of hard European wood species in three colors: maple, beech and walnut, which are suitable for manipulation by heat bending. This method of treatment provides a broad qualitative and formal possibilities.
Structure and form of the artefact are in its most dynamic phase. Form is created by bending and networking.
The object is dynamic and assertive and its function starts to be explicit.
The material is susceptible to external influences in terms of swelling, drying or bending.
For this second phase, I used veneer of hard European wood species in three colors: maple, beech and walnut, which are suitable for manipulation by heat bending. This method of treatment provides a broad qualitative and formal possibilities.
Structure and form of the artefact are in its most dynamic phase. Form is created by bending and networking.
The object is dynamic and assertive and its function starts to be explicit.
Autumn
Maturity is the time of experiences. In this stage one is settling down, his personality is defined . After gaining independence, he seeks bonding and prosperity in the family.
By bonding and stiffening, wood achieves its most stable form and maximum utilization of structural properties. Construction strives to strength and stability as the function becomes most evident in its archetypal form. The form is recognizable, calm and firm. However, we recognize the construction joints which have formed the construction..
I joined plywood of various types and colors, thus achieving a desired visual and structural effects. Processing includes the widest range of activities of all the phases - adhesion, structural bonding, cutting, sanding and coating.
Maturity is the time of experiences. In this stage one is settling down, his personality is defined . After gaining independence, he seeks bonding and prosperity in the family.
By bonding and stiffening, wood achieves its most stable form and maximum utilization of structural properties. Construction strives to strength and stability as the function becomes most evident in its archetypal form. The form is recognizable, calm and firm. However, we recognize the construction joints which have formed the construction..
I joined plywood of various types and colors, thus achieving a desired visual and structural effects. Processing includes the widest range of activities of all the phases - adhesion, structural bonding, cutting, sanding and coating.
Winter
Old age is a peaceful and heavy phase in a man's life. It's a time of remenescing and retrospection. It's the age of wisdom that we respect. An old man is aware of his own transience he's is reconciled with it.
This is the final, the most static stage, which confirms his character and finishes his work.
Material is in the process of deconstruction and loses its structural properties with age. Once solid, wood is now gradually falling apart.
Artifact loses its archetypal form and its structure is apparently deconstructing. However, its shape is peaceful and dignified.
In the fourth stage, I used bog oak (morta, abonos) up to several thousand years old, taken out from the river bed of Sava. Not being exposed to the atmosphere, wood is conserved for thousands of years.
The oldest piece of bog oak in the world was found in river Krapina and it's been dated up to 8290 years of age.
Its properties include both external decay and internal hardness, while the dark color is the result of chemical reaction of tannin in the oak wood and iron in the water. Processing of this wood is tough and minimal.
Old age is a peaceful and heavy phase in a man's life. It's a time of remenescing and retrospection. It's the age of wisdom that we respect. An old man is aware of his own transience he's is reconciled with it.
This is the final, the most static stage, which confirms his character and finishes his work.
Material is in the process of deconstruction and loses its structural properties with age. Once solid, wood is now gradually falling apart.
Artifact loses its archetypal form and its structure is apparently deconstructing. However, its shape is peaceful and dignified.
In the fourth stage, I used bog oak (morta, abonos) up to several thousand years old, taken out from the river bed of Sava. Not being exposed to the atmosphere, wood is conserved for thousands of years.
The oldest piece of bog oak in the world was found in river Krapina and it's been dated up to 8290 years of age.
Its properties include both external decay and internal hardness, while the dark color is the result of chemical reaction of tannin in the oak wood and iron in the water. Processing of this wood is tough and minimal.
