DESIGN – NENDO ‘1% products’ // Milan preview
Like a host of other brands, uber-cool Japanese design studio NENDO have released images of a limited edition tableware collection to be launched at the NENDO solo exhibition during Salon del Mobile in Milan next April.
The collection includes a series of stacking vases, a coffee-filter holder that mimics the matching cup it stacks with, and a stacking set of sake cups that can be combined to make a tumbler, large cup or jug – each piece to be produced in a limited edition of 100.
The designers explain ‘100 as the perfect amount: they’re neither one-off “works of art” nor mass-produced products made in the millions. Whether it’s the skill of the artisans or new technologies, we want to make things that are only possible because there are 100 of them. Not more, not less. To give owners the chance to experience the joy of owing 1%.’
Win-tea cup
This three-piece set consists of a cup, saucer and coffee filter holder whose form mimics that of the cup and saucer. With its stabilizing form when placed on top of the cup to pour coffee, and a volume of precisely one cup of coffee, the filter holder provides maximum function with minimal fuss.
The saucer doubles as a tray for the filter holder after coffee has been brewed, and the entire set can be stacked for storage at half its height by placing the filter holder between the saucer and cup.
Top-tea set - teapot and cup set.
The thick wooden lid provides good insulation to keep the tea warm, and its pointed center condenses steam into liquid and directs it back into the teapot, rather dripping down the sides.
Block-vase
A series of small bud vases that can be stacked together like building blocks. The vase comes in four different sizes, carefully measured to fit together without disturbing the vase on the bottom.
Also in the collection are a set of sake cups and a series of plates, each embracing the natural imperfections and irregularities found in unfinished porcelain.
Design critic Alice Rawsthorn,speaker at Seven Kinds of Happiness seminars at designEX, spoke to Oki Sato of Nendo about the collection in her Dezeen interview watch here, or Oki Sato watch interview on Dezeen here.
The collection will be on show as part of Nendo’s solo show at Palazzo Visconti, Via Cino del Duca 8, Milan from 17-22 April.
www.nendo.jp/en // photographs by Hiroshi Iwasaki.
by Anne-Maree Sargeant // The Snap Assembly blog // AMS-info
