Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Teo Rhe recalls the shock on people\u2019s faces when they learn that his bench isn\u2019t made out of wood. \u201cPeople think it\u2019s wood spray-painted silver \u2014 how funny is that?\u201d says the South Korean designer. \u201cWhen they touch it, especially because it\u2019s cold, they realise it\u2019s metal.\u201d With Sheyang Li, a fellow student at Design Academy Eindhoven, Rhe founded the design studio Bureau.parso last April and uses salvaged wood as a model for aluminium furniture and decor.\u00a0The duo is among a group of designers creating alchemical works that conjure the appearance of wood from unexpected materials. In part it is a desire to connect with nature in an unusual way; but it\u2019s also a means to breathe a semblance of life into a material where it is found lacking. Alongside the Aluminium Veneer Bench is the Aluminum Veneer Lamp, which debuted last December at design show Alcova Miami, and looks like a fallen twig with a slim metal pole running through it. The Aluminum Veneer Chair depicts the knotty texture of heartwood. \u201cWe tried to put in as many wood-like grains as we could,\u201d says Li. It\u2019s an effect that is only achievable with soft woods such as Douglas fir and pine.\u00a0New York-based curator Sandy Park featured Bureau.parso in her exhibition of up-and-coming designers from Seoul at online design gallery Adorno. \u201cTheir designs resonated with me,\u201d she says, \u201cespecially their ability to mimic wood\u2019s natural qualities with surprising materials.\u201d\u00a0It was at Milan design fair Salone last year that Rhe and Li were inspired to consider printing \u201cthe texture of wood\u201d on aluminium, says Rhe. They suspected their different approaches might be in sync: Li makes coffee tables and stools covered in a glimmering patchwork of metals, while Rhe is informed by the clean lines and discipline of industrial design. It took about a month and a half for the pair to master the process; their Aluminium Veneer series debuted at Paris\u2019s Maison & Objet in September. First, they render their design using Rhino software. Then they sandblast the wood, before hand-brushing. Once the texture is right, they compress the piece with casting sand to make a negative mould which they fill with molten metal \u2014 and \u201cpray to the gods that it works\u201d, says Rhe.\u00a0Seoul-based designer Lee Hyungjun\u2019s Wood Stack series reimagines tree trunk slices in stainless steel. Arranged as tower-like side tables, they nod to seonangdang, or seonghwangdang, the ancient Korean practice of piling stones for good luck.Hyungjun begins by making detailed sketches of trees and 3D renders, then laser cuts metal into individual pieces, joining them with \u201cthick and prominent\u201d welding to mimic tree bark or sap. Hand engraving the tree rings is the hardest part, says Hyungjun, but also the most rewarding. \u201cBy dedicating long hours to this act, I can fully infuse my energy into the piece,\u201d he says. \u201cEngraving each line, like tree rings, becomes a way of breathing the vitality of nature into an object that inherently lacks life.\u201d\u00a0We tried to capture the natural imperfections of the material. This piece embodies the transformation of matter, the passage of time, and the heritage of ancestral knowhowOther designers are imbuing glass with wood-like characteristics. In Prague, Elis Monsport cast glasses from pine tree branches for the restaurant Alba. Garnished with an edible pinecone, an Old Fashioned cocktail feels \u201clike you\u2019re drinking the tree itself\u201d, she says. Her Forester tumblers, shot glasses and high balls are cast from a piece of cork wood found in the Pyrenees \u2014 and are available to buy. Similarly, Joyce Broussillou and Cl\u00e9ment Thevenot\u2019s Madeira Coffee Table features stout glass legs modelled after a piece of aged oak. \u201cWe tried to capture the natural imperfections of the material,\u201d says Broussillou, who lives in Troyes, France. \u201cThis piece embodies the transformation of matter, the passage of time, and the heritage of ancestral knowhow.\u201d\u00a0Recreating the look of a tree as a way to recapture its spirit is also the MO of Hanover-born, Amsterdam-based designer Basse Stittgen. Using an industrial baking mixer, he makes clay by blending water with lignin powder (the plant-based polymer) and end-of-life-cycle cellulose fibre (used for textile and paper production).\u00a0\u00a0Stittgen moulds the clay into a bark-like texture, which he arranges over a wooden scaffolding and leaves to air dry. The result: lamps with root-like legs and stumpy armchairs that look like strangely shaped logs. He plans to show them during Salone del Mobile this April.\u00a0\u201cToday, as a designer, it\u2019s hard to justify creating more things,\u201d he says. \u201cWe don\u2019t necessarily need new products, [rather] lenses to look at materials anew, ways of connecting with the things that are already there.\u201dFind out about our latest stories first \u2014 follow @ft_houseandhome on Instagram<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Teo Rhe recalls the shock on people\u2019s faces when they learn that his bench isn\u2019t made out of wood. \u201cPeople think it\u2019s wood spray-painted silver \u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":255396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-255395","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255395"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":255397,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255395\/revisions\/255397"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}