Joris Laarman works with Opel

Joris Laarman is working with carmaker Opel to design a range of furniture based on the way bones grow.

The young Dutch designer has collaborated with the research lab the International Development Centre Adam Opel GmbH, employing advanced digital tools the carmaker has developed.

Laarman’s Bone Chair and Bone Chaise, the first products from the Bone Furniture range, were launched at Design Miami in December. It was exhibited at Smart Deco, the show co-presented by New York gallery Barry Friedman Ltd and Dutch design collective Droog.

The form of the pieces was optimised using Opel’s software – which the car-maker uses to refine car parts to increase strength and efficient use of material.

The software mimics the way that growing bones are able to generate additional material where it is needed, but also to remove material where it is superfluous, by making the bone thinner or hollow.

The Bone Chair is made of cast aluminium while the Chaise is cast in clear polyurethane resin (below).

Below: rendering of the Bone Chaise.

Laarman has created a short movie explaining the design process. He is now working on a bone table.

Laarman has also released a photo of Freedom of Beech, a wooden chair designed for Dutch furniture brand Arco that is intended to distort with age (above, photographed in the snow).

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• Furniture
• Design