Didi Ng Wing Yin presents "down to earth" timber furniture at Helsinki Design Week
Chunky misshapen stools and a lampshade made of wood shavings feature in this hand-carved timber furniture collection by emerging designer Didi Ng Wing Yin, which is on display at Helsinki Design Week.
The furniture forms part of Habitare, the annual furniture fair held during Helsinki Design Week.
Hong Kong-born designer and maker Ng crafted his amorphous pieces almost entirely out of wood as his "way of working a bit against traditional industrial design".
"That's why none of the shapes are the same," Ng told Dezeen at Habitare.
One of these designs is a neutral-toned wood veneer lampshade made of delicate shavings sliced with a Japanese hand plane. The shavings were then cross-laminated together to strengthen them.
"You want to touch wood – whenever you see the texture, you want to feel it," continued the designer, who said that tactility is at the core of his personal design process.
Another piece is a geometric slab of untreated timber, which was mounted on steel legs to create a low-slung bench and sprayed with a hot pink hue of Indian ink. Ng also coloured a lumpy fir wood stool with iridescent green ink.
"The idea isn't to make wood not look like wood, but it's to make sure that it doesn't look ordinary," he explained.
Based in Helsinki, the designer said that he mainly uses locally available softwood to create his furniture, such as spruce and pine.
"I like that it doesn't use fancy hardwoods like oak or mahogany," he said. [The softwoods] are more kind of down to earth, I think."
Three seemingly identical chunky black stools also feature in the collection, all with subtly different textural designs.
Organically shaped, intricately pleated vases were positioned atop an angular wood chip plinth while Ng also created monolithic sculptures carved from single pieces of light wood.
Ng recently turned his focus to designing furniture after working as an interior designer in Hong Kong, after which he studied for a master's degree in interior architecture at Helsinki's Aalto University.
As the city's design week continues in Finland's capital, take a look at projects showcased at previous editions of the event, including textile filling created from plants and essential furniture specifically designed for people affected by natural disasters and the ongoing refugee crisis.
The photography is by Didi NG Wing Yin.
Helsinki Design Week takes place from 8 to 17 September 2023 in Helsinki, Finland. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.