Nendo Takes Over MADProjects Gallery
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Starting this week, New York’s Museum of Arts and Design will cede control of its second-floor MADProjects Gallery to Nendo, a Tokyo-based studio known for its clever, subversive updates to traditional design concepts. “Blown-Color” is an assembly of one-of-a-kind lamps made from Smash, a special polyester fabric that can be manipulated into different forms when heated and that retains its shape when cooled. The group created a series of lights in the style of vernacular Japanese chochin paper lanterns, but, rather than the traditional bamboo frame, the properties of Smash allowed Nendo to shape it like blown glass in one seamless piece. Image courtesy Masayuki Hayashi. -
The “Fade-Out” chair, a simple rectangular chair made from clear acrylic and painted with trompe l’oeil wood grain over most of the structure. The pattern fades away on the lower part of the chair legs to create the impression that the chairs are floating in space. Image courtesy Masayuki Hayashi. -
“Cord-Chair” is a super thin wooden side chair that appears flimsy and breakable, yet is sturdy and indefinitely strong thanks to its hidden aluminum skeleton. Image courtesy Yoneo Kawabe. -
“Phantom-Waves” are a series of prototypes for a new vase. Each rectangular or cylindrical vase is constructed with polarized Mylar that creates the impression of solid horizontal discs that divide the vase into segments. The discs are, however, only an illusion caused by the polarized light—a flower stem or branch can be inserted “through” the seemingly solid disc, creating an intriguing illusion. Image courtesy Masayuki Hayashi. -
Designer Oki Sato, principal of Nendo, in a room filled with a collection of recycled-paper Cabbage Chairs. -
Nendo designed the Cabbage Chair for the XXIst Century Man exhibition curated by Issey Miyake in 2008. The piece is made of pleated paper created as a by-product during fabric production. The material would ordinarily be discarded.
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