MASSPRODUCTIONS / CRAFTSMANSHIP, DESIGN AND POETRY
Massproductions, founded by British designer Chris Martin and his Swedish colleague Magnus Elebäck, is a design-driven company, focused on the renewal of contemporary furniture with minimal environmental impact.
Initially, the two worked together as freelance consultants, creating furniture for other companies to put in production, but in 2009, they decided it was time that they founded their own company.
Working independently by running your own business is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, you are free to try out any idea that comes into your head, without compromise.
On the other, you lack the security of being part of a larger context, where the financial responsibility lies on someone else.
Only one year after the company was created, Massproductions presented their most impressive piece – the Sander table, consisting of a mouth-blown crystal cone, paired with a hardened circular glass tabletop.
The cone is produced in the same way as an ordinary (albeit very large) glass bottle, but the base of the “bottle” is knocked off using a cold tool against the hot glass.
The size of the cone is determined by the maximum amount of air a glassblower can hold in his lungs, so in a way, the scope of human physical capacity has decided the size of the table.
The basic shape of the table is denoted by only three circles, and the two parts are cured with a UV light, a technology that can only be used on glass.
The table is made in the Czech Republic, one of the world’s premiere glass regions.
The first product that the duo ever designed, in 2009, was the “Tio” chair.
Tio means “ten” in Swedish, and the name refers to the fact that the chair is made of 10 mm gauge steel wire that measures over ten metres.
The wire is shaped by a computer-controlled bending machine.
It undergoes various surface treatments, after which it is welded together.
Thanks to the efficiency of this process, the finished chair is made with zero waste.
The ”Rose chair” has a poetic backstory – its shapes are inspired by rose petals falling to the ground.
It is composed of four “flower petals”, layer-glued and pressed to shape, made to fit each other precisely and accurately, and assembled without the use of a single screw.
By using one of the world’s largest 3D printers, various life-sized prototypes of the chair could be created, which transformed the idea of a chair made to resemble rose petals into reality.
