Design Academy Eindhoven 2004 - Milan Concept

'Concrete Poetry'

A contest of wills between utility and hedonism...... is an apt description of the Design Academy's presentation at the Milan Furniture Fair in April 2004.
Designers have fared well in recent years, riding the waves of the buoyant economy. But now the tide has turned: we see plunging prosperity.
The Third World is practically bankrupt and even the West is anxious. Like every crisis, this situation brings trials and tribulations, but more especially, it presents new challenges. We are ready to embrace new ways of seeing man and his world. We are ready for inventive and innovative solutions to problems, be they local or global. Designers are facing new challenges.

"Functionality must be redefined," states Joris Laarman, whose recent graduation project was an extravagantly designed baroque-style radiator made of concrete.
With the exception of the material used, this project seems very 'un-Dutch'.
The main characteristic of Dutch design is generally its restraint and austerity. While the design language may be based on a colourful palette of ideas, the result is rarely any 'explosion' of new colours of forms.
We usually have to look long and hard to find any unnecessary ornamentation, frills or furbelows.
But like the true pragmatic Dutchman he is, Laarman is able to present convincing arguments to justify every element of his design.

Elaborate, time-consuming decoration techniques and patterns were an important feature of the work of noted designers such as Jurgen Bey, Hella Jongerius, Marcel Wanders, Wieki Somers and Job Smeets.
They justified their choices in terms of the underlying concepts and the general economic prosperity of their day. The generation that followed them went one step further, showing that decoration can also be useful and functional.

At first sight, Laarman's radiator appears to be a postmodernist reference to a bygone age in art history. But it is far more: the rococo ornamentation is also functional. A radiator works best when it presents the greatest possible surface area.
Current minimalist radiators promise much, but in reality their efficiency is limited. Laarman's alternative has served to reinvent functionality.
In an age which demands practical solutions, Laarman and others of his generation have re-examined the functional demands of Modernism.
They do not accept the pessimistic view that it condemns us to the most basic utilitarianism, with anything 'unnecessary' being cast aside. They seek ways in which we can expand the boundaries of functional design, whereby pure hedonism is allowed to make its mark.

Laarman's radiator represents the perfect marriage of ornament and function. Similarly, the humble boiler becomes a tiled display, the tool cupboard is bedecked with flowers, and the paving stone becomes a decorative 'leitmotif'.
Ceramics emulate knitted fabrics, joints are jewel-encrusted and the crystal chain brings functionalism to life. The luxury becomes the necessity.

Li Edelkoort, 2004

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