Bureau de Change Architects recently created a collection of furniture for UK brand Efasma. The collection is made up of handwoven walnut framed seating, marble and timber dining tables, a coffee table and room divider.
Single lengths of 100% cotton rope bind chair frames together, giving them rigidity, a concept which exemplifies the use of traditional techniques as a platform for innovation.
The essence of the collection is drawn from the brand's origins in Greece, inspired by a wish to utilize talented local craftsmen and draw their skills out from the shadows of industrial manufacture. The country's basket makers and weavers - the skills of whom will be used in the manufacture of the furniture - inspired tactile and three dimensional handwoven surfaces. "Sourcing materials and production in Greece gives Efasma and the consumer the chance to benefit from the craftsmanship of the country's highly skilled makers, and also brings business back to the company's community," explained Katerina Dionysopoulou, co-founder of Bureau de Change.
Woven surfaces are echoed in the geometry of the solid wood dining table, which plays with the direction and natural grain of solid oak and walnut. The same technique is used in the coffee table, in which puzzle like marble panels are rotated and pieced together to emphasize the veins running through the material.
The dining tables have been shaped by a slotting system, in which Efasma's dining chairs appear pushed into the edge of the table, leaving behind a footprint of satisfying brass clad notches.
"We wanted to create products in which design content and innovation emerge from traditional techniques and craftsmanship," added Billy Mavropoulos, Bureau de Change co-founder. "Distilling the structures down to their simplest forms not only creates a strong graphic language within the range, but also embosses detailing, the textural qualities of the woven surfaces and the patina of natural materials."