Minimalist, geometric, linear, almost modular, Surface is a series of multipurpose, highly customisable small tables inspired, in the words of the designer, by a painting by Piet Mondrian and the sculptures of Donald Judd. Skilfully combining wood, metal and satin and glossy colours, they express a poetic design that moves between reduced forms, essential materials and natural colour choices.Read more
Minimalist, geometric, linear, almost modular, Surface is a series of multipurpose, highly customisable small tables inspired, in the words of the designer, by a painting by Piet Mondrian and the sculptures of Donald Judd. Skilfully combining wood, metal and satin and glossy colours, they express a poetic design that moves between reduced forms, essential materials and natural colour choices. Sober features that never issue from simplification but rather from a subtle quest for balance.
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Concept
“Aesthetically, they recall a Piet Mondrian painting and the form of a sculpture by Donald Judd,” this is how Vincent Van Duysen describes the sources that inspired him to create this minimal, geometric and linear product. Almost modular and highly customisable, it has become an iconic object of modern furnishings produced in Italy.
Surface expresses a poetic design that moves between reducing forms, essential materials and natural colour choices. These sober features never derive from simplification, but rather from a subtle quest for balance.
Vincent Van Duysen was born in Lokeren, Belgium, in 1962. After earning a degree from the Sint-Lucas School of Architecture, Ghent, he worked with Aldo Cibic in Milan, followed by a collaboration with Jean De Meulder in Antwerp. In 1989, he established Vincent Van Duysen Architects.
Today, the firm has grown into a team of more than twenty collaborators with works ranging from product design for numerous international brands, to commercial and large-scale architectural projects, with a focus on high-end residences. From the outset, a definite relationship between architecture, interior and product design has been the driving force behind the conception of projects. With respect to context and tradition, it is an approach within which the senses, the physical experience of space, the textures and the light place the integrity of the user at its core. Functionality, durability and comfort are the prime components of the project, an architectural language not shy to convey aesthetics, but prone to eschew fashion and trends.
During his career, Vincent Van Duysen has received multiple awards, among them the Flemish Culture Prize for Design, the Belgian Designer of the Year and the Henry van de Velde Lifetime Achievement Award. His projects and realizations have also been featured in different monographs among which those edited by renowned publishing house Thames & Hudson.