Photograph by Andrew Bradley
Feature: Nation Building
May 1, 2006
Any geneticist, horse breeder, chemist or chef will talk proportion of
ingredients and primacy when determining the aesthetics and quality of a
product. The same rule might also be applied to furniture, where country of
origin influences style and substance. Brazil, Ireland and Canada—three
countries with as little in common as samba, Riverdance and Céline Dion—are each
producing furniture of superlative quality that reflects the uniqueness of the
individual designers, as well as each one’s home nation.; function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
Canadian Lee Kline explores innovative
manufacturing methods for his collection of contemporary tables and
chairs. Photograph by Peter Schafrick. (Click image to enlarge)
BRAZIL
Brazil with brazil’s forests of hardwoods, it is little wonder that
wood, in all its richness and complexity, often forms the foundation of
furniture collections by Brazilian designer-manufacturers. What is perhaps more
surprising (or at least less well known) is that the level of craftsmanship of
many of these collections now seems on par with that of the most prestigious
workshops in Italy, an opinion substantiated by the fact that two such Italian
houses, Living Divani and Porro, have furniture made for the South American
market in Brazil, the first time either company has licensed production outside
Italy. Although historically Brazil has exported more timber than tables, it
ranks among the world’s 10 largest furniture manufacturers (furniture exports
between 1994, at $293 million, and 2004, at $940 million, have
tripled).; function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
Photograph by Click Foto. (Click image to enlarge)
Design and production are concentrated in the country’s southern
states, perhaps not coincidentally, as they have large Italian immigrant
populations dating from the 19th century. A strong tradition of
craftsmanship and a national love of modernism, combined with a wealth of
resources, a relatively weak national currency and an unfaltering euro, set the
stage for Brazilian designer-manufacturers to become principal players in the
world of high-profile furniture design. Founded by self-taught designer Etel
Carmona in 1988, Etel Interiores and its signed, custom-made furniture are a
testament to tradition while nodding toward tomorrow. The pieces, designed
by Carmona and noted Brazilian designers Claúdia Moreira Salles and Isay
Weinfeld, are made entirely by hand, using old-fashioned techniques of
woodworking, joinery and marquetry. Forms favor the contemporary—geometric and
organic shapes ideal for highlighting the varieties of wood grain. Etel
Interiores also manufactures reproductions of Black & White furniture—1950s
designs by a pantheon of Brazilian modernist architects, including Miguel Forte,
Jacob Ruchti and Carlos Millan. Less mid-century and more thoroughly modern is
the company’s deep-seated commitment to sustaining Brazil’s forests. Since 1999,
Etel and her company have been directly involved in forest sustainability
projects, and the company uses woods only from government-managed and -monitored
forests. In 2001, Etel Interiores was awarded certification from the Forest
Stewardship Council (FSC) and became the first Brazilian handcrafted furniture
manufacturer to receive the council’s Green Seal.; function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
Photograph by Eugenio Paccelli. (Click image to enlarge)
Equally eco-conscious, the
company Moura Starr believes in making 300 pieces of furniture—sideboards, so
fas and chairs; dining, coffee and end tables; dressers and beds—from a single
tree, one never felled before it has completed its life cycle. Moura Starr also
believes in statement-making contemporary design. Company designers Graca
Kazan and Luis Mario Moura draw on their architectural backgrounds to create
sleek, strong shapes, many utilizing glass and polished metals, which are
juxtaposed with hardwoods as rich and exotic as their names (imbuia, cabreuva,
acai, sucupira), leathers from Brazil’s ranch country and sheets of lead
crystal. This combination of the natural and the high tech means that every
piece is “naturally” unique: Each is slightly different by virtue of the unique
organic materials used. Paradoxically, this celebration of nature is made
possible only because of Moura Starr’s proprietary veneering methods, by which
wood is bonded to carbon.
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