Dezeen Magazine

Haute Bamboo by Bo Reudler and Olav Bruin

Milan 2010: Amsterdam designer Bo Reudler and architect Olav Bruin will present a collection of furniture made of bamboo stalks in Milan next month.

Called Haute Bamboo, the range will include a chair, table, and mirror finished in black linseed paint, plus a candle holder coated in copper.

A rare mutation causes the bamboo stalks to grow with bobbles along their length, making each piece unique and giving the appearance of turned components.

The project will be on show 14-19 April at an exhibition of Dutch green design called Tuttobene in Zona Tortona.

See all our stories about Milan 2010 in our special category.

More about Bo Reudler on Dezeen:

Slow White series (March 2009)
More pieces in Slow White series (October 2009)

Photographs are by Bo Reudler Studio.

The following information is from Reudler:


Bo Reudler launches Haute Bamboo series during Fuori Salone Milan. For the Haute Bamboo series Dutch designer Bo Reudler joined forces with bamboo-architect Olav Bruin.

Haute Bamboo picks up where the Slow White series by Bo Reudler Studio left off: it continues the quest to renew our connection with nature, guided by natural forms in an intuitive way. While bamboo is among our fastest renewable resources, it’s often considered a poor man's timber.

With this series, we wanted to re-examine the aesthetics of bamboo furniture. The bulging forms give personality to each piece which will always be different due to the randomness of each stalk. The curves of 'Bambusa Ventricosa' are caused by a rare mutation in the bamboo producing strikingly bulbous stalks.

A coating of glossy black linseed-oil paint references eastern lacquered furniture, binding the origin of the material with its outcome. All products are hand made.

Bo Reudler Studio is a product and interior design studio led by Bo Reudler, based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Bo graduated from the ArtEZ Academy of Art and Design and is also co-founder of Asylum Collection. The work of the studio aims to charge objects with imagination and meaning, working as storytellers through matter, experimenting with materials, following their hidden qualities to bring out their natural beauty.

Olav Bruin is currently an architect at leading Dutch architectural practice 24H. His thinking explores architecture as a sensitive organism in the landscape, focusing on local materials and respecting natural conditions. For the Haute Bamboo series, Olav brings his experience from working as a bamboo-architect in Thailand for the children's play den at the Soneva Kiri resort, where the amorphous structure was constructed entirely out of bamboo and rattan by local craftsmen.