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Bring Nature Into Your Home With AJAR
However, saying this can turn out to be quite ironic since natural materials have been an essential part of domestic interiors since way before there was such a thing as ‘fashion’ and ‘interior design’ per se. In the larger scheme of things, being surrounded by artificial (or industrially produced) materials in our homes is quite a recent phenomenon, less than a century old. Before the emergence of industrial design—which incorporated new materials, such as plastic and steel into the household—and the development of standardised mass-produced commercial furniture, domestic interiors were predominantly based around natural materials and textures: stone, wood, wool, and ceramics. Things are pretty different nowadays. Whereas formerly having a dinner table made from solid wood planks was pretty much the standard, today it’s quite a luxury!
However, the point is not to grieve the predominance of artificial materials and attribute an intrinsic superiority to natural materials (an idea that is problematic in itself). Although industrialisation and mass production has caused the proliferation of cheap artificial materials which tend to be less durable than their natural counterparts, it has also fostered techniques to treat natural materials in ways that were simply not possible before to create the best furniture pieces possible. The industrial design profession has always taken the dialogue between artificial and natural as a source of inspiration. How to make the most of natural materials by using cutting-edge industrial techniques? How can these materials be stretched to their physical limits through industrial procedures without them losing their integrity and character? How can a balance between natural and artificial be achieved in commercial furniture? And also, how can the incorporation of natural materials help to promote more eco-friendly furniture and interior designs? These are just a few examples of the questions that designers who work with natural materials might ask themselves when conceiving a new piece of furniture or interior design.
AJAR’s catalogue has plenty of hand-picked pieces of Spanish furniture which present a carefully thought-out balance between natural materials and industrial processes, making the most of materials such as ceramics, leather, cotton, linen, and various kinds of wood.
Lounging With Natural Fabrics
BD Barcelona’s Lounger armchair is a perfect example of a top-tier piece of Spanish furniture that combines industrial processes materials (such as lacquered MDF and aluminium) with natural leather upholstery and walnut textures. The way in which the three large pieces of MDF are moulded and assembled is a testimony to the way in which, in the right hands, industrial techniques can be implemented in a craft-like manner. Bearing Hayon’s unmistakable style, the Lounger armchair is a bold statement in any living room or office space. Another high-end armchair available in the AJAR catalogue is the Syrma armchair, designed by the Italian studio G Vegni & G Gualtierotti for Casadesus. In this case, the natural material to highlight is the tasteful use of linen upholstery and cushion covers. The lightness and intertwined quality of linen as a fabric resonates with the thin metal structure, which can also be ordered in different colours (copper, white, and dark grey). To enhance the comfort factor, the Syrma comes with an additional footrest made with the same materials.
Moving on to larger seating options, the Marlow sofa is another piece of Spanish furniture that uses natural materials such as cotton and duck feathers to achieve a perfect balance between comfort and stylishness. Also conceived by G Vegni & G Gualtierotti for Casadesus with the purpose of being the main luxury sofa in any living room, the Marlow sofa comes in different lengths, from the already sizeable 2.06m option up to the sprawling 3.40m version.
Reinterpreting Traditional Wooden Chairs and Stools
Wood is one of the oldest materials used for furniture due to its versatility, durability, flexibility, and overall capacity to be used in imaginative ways. For thousands of years, wood has been an endless source of prime material for the craft of chairs and stools, and contemporary designers continue to explore the seemingly inexhaustible possibilities that this material offers in this department. One of our favourite wooden chairs in AJAR’s catalogue of Spanish furniture is the Bogart chair designed by Estudi Manel Molina for Vergés, a Catalan company which specialises particularly in chairs. Made from timber and natural paper cord, the Bogart chair is an exquisite contemporary take on the classic wicker Mediterranean chair. It’s one of those rare pieces of commercial furniture which is deeply rooted in tradition, but at the same time manages to look unmistakably contemporary, mainly due to the way materials are treated.
Crafted by Emiliana Design also for Vergés, the Naoshima stool is more adventurous with its use of tradition. The bottom half is pretty much the traditional structure of the four-legged stool (albeit built with high-quality oak or beech). On the other hand, the upper half morphs into something completely different, exploring the expressiveness and structural capacities of bent plywood to create a shape with curves, twists, and turns. The way in which these two parts of the stool are seamlessly integrated is quite impressive!
The Best Commercial Furniture Made With Wood, Ceramic, and Stone
The Valencia-based brand Kendo has a couple of tasteful designer coffee tables of which we are very fond of due to their careful implementation of natural materials. The Van coffee and side table, for instance, uses beech or walnut wooden legs combined with highly durable porcelain. The design combines the friendly rounded wooden legs with the sleek and neutral finish of the porcelain, resulting in a piece of commercial furniture that is both playful and elegant. The Lotta coffee table, on the other hand, eschews inconspicuousness and dials up on the luxury by combining walnut legs with a thin single-piece of white or black marble. This marble piece in particular is a great example of how industrial procedures can manipulate natural materials in such a way as to take their physical capacities to the limit. The result is a low round table which is bound to be the centerpiece of any living room.
The Basque brand Treku has a couple of pieces designed by Angel Martí and Enrique Delamo which also use natural materials and which could be perfect living room companions to these modern coffee tables. The Aura sideboard, for example, combines dark sega oak with a steel structure in two modules, one closed (with drawers) and another which is open. The Aura TV unit is a lower and longer (2.6m) sideboard, which can be used as a TV stand or as a large surface to place decor like trinkets, designer lamps, and vases. It is worth noting that this unit is modular and fully customisable, providing you with several options to suit your storage and display needs.
BD Barcelona’s Playful Collection of Ceramic Vases
BD Barcelona also has an assortment of iconic ceramic pieces which you can sprinkle around your surroundings in order to endow your home with playful gestures and hints. Once again, Jaime Hayon displays his irreverence and humour in his line of Happy glazed ceramic vases. The Happy Susto is a charming vase which portrays a character being ‘happily scared’ (as hinted by the Spanish name). Flowers can be placed in either of the three orifices, which are located in the hands and head. Its scary counterpart is the Happy Yeti version, inspired by this popular mythical creature. About this vase, Hayon cheekily says that “you can put plants in the head so that it looks like it has hair and scares a little more.”
Another of Hayon’s line of vases is the Showtime, as iconic today as they were when launched a decade ago. Less figurative than the Happy line, vases n.5 and n.2 might be said to resemble some sort of alien-like creatures, while vase n.1 could perhaps be some sort of bird. Be what they may, these vases come in plenty of colorful options, and the possibility of decorating their various orifices with different kinds of flowers means that the options and combinations are endless.
Designed almost half a century ago, Ettore Sottsass Jr.’s Shiva is another ceramic piece that has become one of the most iconic hallmarks in BD Barcelona’s catalogue of Spanish furniture and decor. Before designing this phallic-shaped vase, Sottsass had been travelling to India for a decade. This is evident in the fact that it is clearly inspired by the fertility symbols that abound in Hinduism (the Shiva Lingam being the most powerful of them).
AJAR’s curated catalogue of Spanish furniture has plenty to offer when it comes to contemporary commercial furniture and decor which use natural materials for contemporary designs made with the most cutting edge industrial procedures. If you would like to take a look at more options, you can book a consultation with us or just browse through our online store to take a look at the hand-picked design pieces that we can offer you.