MANIERA is presenting new furniture by Junya Ishigami in Milan and in Brussels
This spring, MANIERA Gallery is presenting a new furniture series by Junya Ishigami. The pieces will first be presented at Alcova during Salone del Mobile in Milan from 15 to 21 April, after which they will be on display at the gallery from 25 April onwards.
Ishigami’s work - both his architecture and his furniture - is elegant, delicate, understated and seemingly simple. But the apparent simplicity and sobriety of Ishigami’s designs is misleading, concealing its structural complexity and the efforts of the design team.
Ishigami’s first building, the KAIT Workshop at Kanagawa Institute of Technology, in 2008, marked instant success for the architect. The design was a forest-like structure of 305 slender white columns, each with specific dimensions and a unique orientation, surrounded only by glass, and contained by a simple steel roof. It took two years to determine the size, position and rotation of each column. Some other notable works include the Park Groot Vijversburg Visitor Center (2017), the Botanical Garden Art Biotop “Water Garden” (2018), the Serpentine Pavilion (2019), and the House & Restaurant (2022). His latest project is the Zaishui Art Museum in China. This linear museum of one kilometer long on a lake, is a powerful architectural gesture amid the overwhelming nature around.
Ishigami prefers lightness to mass, fragility to gravity, and this is also visible in his designs for the new furniture series for MANIERA, consisting of dining chairs and rocking chairs, a low Zaisu chair, an atelier table, a dining table, a glass table, two partitions and seven lamps. Materials used are stainless steel, leather, rattan, glass and wood. A part of the collection was originally designed for Ishigami’s cave-like House & Restaurant. Other pieces are conceived for Junya’s mother’s home, the House (under construction).
The furniture series MANIERA 32 will not be issued in limited editions but made to order at an attractive price. This is a conscious choice by both Junya Ishigami and MANIERA, who wish to give the widest possible audience access to the pieces, available through the MANIERA website and a small range of carefully selected furniture stores around the world.
Images (download, credit: Jeroen Verrecht)
13. Junya Ishigami, MANIERA, Alcova. Photo Jeroen Verrecht
17. Junya Ishigami, MANIERA, Alcova. Photo Jeroen Verrecht
19. Junya Ishigami, MANIERA, Alcova. Photo Jeroen Verrecht
15. Junya Ishigami, MANIERA, Alcova. Photo Jeroen Verrecht
About MANIERA
MANIERA gallery commissions architects and artists to develop furniture and objects for use, offering them the opportunity to take an excursion beyond their usual practice. Architects often have a close relationship with the visual arts and artists are often inspired by the spatial environment. MANIERA crystallises these affinities into new design proposals. More than just furniture, the objects produced by MANIERA are a deliberate search for confrontations between the realms of architecture, design and art.
MANIERA brings both up-and-coming and well-established figures to the fore. What they all have in common is a personal language and hand, a conceptual mode of thought, and an authentic and idiosyncratic ‘maniera’ or working method.
MANIERA was founded by Kwinten Lavigne and Amaryllis Jacobs in 2014. In 2023, the gallery moved into Hôtel Danckaert, also known as Villa Dewin. The house was designed in 1922 by the Belgian architect Jean-Baptiste Dewin for Jean Danckaert, a Brussels industrial engineer. The dwelling and the rose garden are listed as heritage. The interior furnishings and decoration of the Villa were developed by the famous Ateliers d’Art De Coene.
About Junya Ishigami
After completing the master's program at the Department of Architecture in Tokyo University of the Arts, Junya Ishigami founded junya.ishigami+associates in 2004, having previously worked at Kazuyo Sejima & Associates.
Some of his notable works encompass the Kanagawa Institute of Technology KAIT Workshop / KAIT Plaza, the Park Groot Vijversburg Visitor Center, the Botanical Garden Art Biotop “Water Garden,” the Serpentine Pavilion 2019, and the House & Restaurant.
Junya Ishigami has been honored with prestigious awards, including the Architectural Institute of Japan Prize (2009), the Golden Lion award for the best project at the Venice Biennale 12th International Architecture Exhibition, the Mainichi Design Award (2010), The Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s Art Encouragement Prize for New Artists (of fine arts), the OBEL AWARD by the Henrik Frode Obel Foundation (2019) and the Frederick Kiesler-Prize of Architecture and the Arts (2024).
SCHEDULE
SALONE DEL MOBILE MILANO
Location: Villa Bagatti-Valsecchi (Alcova)
PRESS PREVIEW
Sunday, April 14, 2024, 09.00 - 13.00
OPEN FOR THE PUBLIC
Monday, April 15 to Sunday, April 21, 2024, 11.00 - 19.00
BRUSSELS
Location:
Hôtel Danckaert
Rue Meyerbeer 33
1190 Brussels
Opening April 25, 2024, 18.00
Selection of images
