One night the Polish designer Oscar Zieta had a sudden inspiration for an extraordinary
project - and a singular design as well. Just awoken he asked himself if it could be
possible to inflate steel, a task he applied himself to in the period following.
Thanks to
his technical knowledge that he acquired during his studies of architecture in Stettin
and Zurich and furtheron broadened during postgraduate studies of computer aided
architectural design - in short CAAD - he rose to the challenge.
In scientific research work he developed a procedure to inflate two sheets of steel, each
one 0,8 mm thick and welded together, in a way that the surfaces are curving gently.
His patent applied for as FIDU- technology allows an absolutely new way of designing
metal furniture. His objects seem to be blown up like swimming rings. Oskar Zieta´s chairs, stools and benches are inviting
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to sit on and have the air of being
soft although they are extremely resilient.
The particular attention he pays to the different
finishes of surfaces generates a lot of different aesthetical effects: His tripod stools
‚PLOPP‘, enameled in strong colours, have a more naive vibe, whereas the same design
with a golden Teflon-coating looks precious and luxurious.
His ‚CHIPPENSTEEL‘ chair
comes in different variations - looking quite cool in reflecting, shinily polished Inox, in
greyish steel with a transparent varnish that shows off the marks of the production process
- adding a more industrial look - and in glossy copper, a noble metal rarely used in furniture
design.
The combination of technological know-how, his joy in experiments and his exurberant
imagination enable Oskar Zieta to create a design that seems to emerge from the materials
itself.
Being a true engineer/designer he cherishes an affinity to these materials that
equals the same design ethics which were the trademarks of icons like Jean Prouvé,
Serge Mouille or Mathieu Mategot. And like these heroes of design Oskar Zieta retains
a bias towards a lucious design.
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