Dezeen Magazine

Tjep creates Bronze Age furniture in opposition to 3D printing

This skeletal furniture by Dutch design studio Tjep. is made from bronze in an effort to create a collection of objects "totally opposite to the technology-driven trends" in design (+ movie).

Tjep. presents Bronze Age at Prague Designblok

Led by studio founder Frank Tjepkema, Tjep. designed a series of spindly hand-crafted furniture pieces in bronze; "the material that represents the dawn of civilisation".

Tjep. presents Bronze Age at Prague Designblok

"For this project I wanted to create something totally opposite to the technology-driven trends based on the emergence of new digital tools such as 3D printing," said Tjepkema.

Tjep. presents Bronze Age at Prague Designblok

"I like the idea that bronze is precious and is therefore implicitly sustainable, it is either preserved or remelted but never discarded, who knows maybe these pieces contain a couple of remelted ancient bronze swords!"

Tjep. presents Bronze Age at Prague Designblok

The Bronze Age collection follows on from the studio's 2011 Recession Chair – a mass-produced Ikea chair reduced in part to a skeletal shape to evoke the receding state of the global economy.

Tjep. presents Bronze Age at Prague Designblok

Tjep. created a new version of this chair in bronze, with the original form in the patinated green condition of the material and the pared back section in its shiny metallic state.

Tjep. presents Bronze Age at Prague Designblok

Other seats in the collection are made entirely in the emaciated style. These include an arm chair, a dining chair, a lounge chair and a chaise long.

Tjep. presents Bronze Age at Prague Designblok

Each features thin elements that vary in thickness along their lengths and larger uneven surfaces that distort reflections.

Tjep. presents Bronze Age at Prague Designblok

The collection was exhibited in the ballroom of the Colloredo Mansfeld Palace during Designblok Prague, which took place last week.

Tjep. presents Bronze Age at Prague Designblok
Clockwork Snow

Also on display in the space was Tjep.'s Il Treno dining booth inspired by old train compartments and a winged heart of cogs called Clockwork Snow, originally designed for a Christmas window display at Milan department store La Rinascente.