Collectible / Art, Design
FÒLIA Collection. Returning the natural wood to the organic form from which it originates.
The plant world is full of light and apparently fragile three-dimensional surfaces. FÒLIA, the research, stems from the desire to bring wood, a natural material, back to the organic form from which it comes. By merging traditional cabinetry processes with contemporary transformation methods such as thermoforming, we have obtained wavy surfaces in maple briar with a glossy finish. This is the basic material for the development of the first outputs of the FÒLIA Collection: two occasional tables and a console.
FÒLIA, the research
The plant world is rich in three-dimensional surfaces with formal variations and constant thickness. They are light and apparently fragile surfaces which, thanks to their folds and curvatures, take on unexpected aesthetics and great mechanical performances,
Our research stems from the analysis of flat surfaces that evolve into three-dimensional shapes: we started from the three-dimensionality of the petals of some flowers and from the observation of the veins and fibers of the leaves.
FÒLIA (folium, pl. FÒLIA: from the Latin "leaf" but also "sheet" understood as a surface) is an investigation based on the manipulation of a wooden surface. A process that aims to deform matter up to its maximum capacity.
We started from the most basic vegetable surface: the sheet of wood, then the panel, the semi-finished product commonly used to create furniture. We asked ourselves: can a wooden panel be bent maybe once, but can it be bent many times in a row?
FOLIA was born from the desire to stress the material with the thermoforming process until it reaches an unexpected shape. This operation is aimed at generating a three-dimensional surface which represents the starting point for the development of the furnishings in the collection.
FÒLIA, the collection
The pieces of the collection are some of the possible outputs that can be achieved thanks to the use of this surface. Two occasional tables and a console: basic products because the intention is to tell and show the potential of the process by activating endless (or almost) formal explorations.
FÒLIA, materials and surface finishes
The structure of the FOLIA furnitures is made of recycled panels from processing waste in the rice industry. It’s a sustainable, recyclable and lighter material than a common wood fiber panel or MDF.
The skin is in maple briar. Briar wood has nineteenth-century origins and it has always accompanied the tradition of Italian cabinet-making. It’s used for precious objects and furnishings despite the fact that it’s not a noble part of the tree (the briar is very gnarled, marbled with variations in opacity and it does not have the typical fiber of the essence).
For the FÒLIA furniture, we have mixed contemporary shapes with an organic finish and with a very decorative aesthetic.
FÒLIA, a collaborative project
FÒLIA was born from the collaboration of Næssi with Devoto Design, a company that, in its forty years of corporate history, has challenged, day after day, the traditional vision of wood for furniture.
Together, we have abandoned the paradigm of carved and turned solid wood used to obtain three-dimensional and sculptural forms. Instead, we chose to obtain curved shapes by hot bending the panel between two elements, a template and a counter template made ad hoc. In this way the material is not wasted and the folding of the panels takes place very quickly, with little waste of energy and resources.
/ ’nɛs:i / Naessi / ¹ Fòlia / ³ Collectible Design / ⁴ wood / ⁴ maple briar / ⁵ Serena Eller Vainicher - Eller studio / ⁶ Devoto Design / ⁷ contemporary and classic / ⁷ curved wood / ⁹ Lake Como Design Festival 2023 /
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