PHOTOS: Greg Cox | PRODUCTION: Etienne Hanekom | WORDS: Alma Viviers
As the recession continues to bite, there’s a new appreciation for the value to be found in authentic design and simple materials.
The effects of the recession will continue to be felt in 2011, meaning over-the-top glamour and decadence is now firmly relegated to a bygone era of excess.
The return to more modest design values doesn’t, however, herald an age of stock-standard basics; rather a new aesthetic appreciation for honest function, simple materials and bare-essentialdetailing.
The Elizabeth Wardrobe from Cape Town-based Pedersen + Lennard is a case in point.
‘About the material’
Luke Pedersen and James Lennard wanted to create something classic yet understated when they were commissioned to design, among other things, a wardrobe for the much-publicised Old Mac Daddy project in Elgin.
Inspired by antique Elizabethan wardrobes, the design was stripped of any decoration save for the form, and expressed in an unconventional, modest material.
“The design is really about the material,” Luke explains. “The texture hides any joints, which gives it a really seamless look.”
The oriented strand board, or OSB, which is normally used as sound and heat insulation in buildings, was digitally cut and finished with a light wash to give it a clean-cut look.
• Pedersen + Lennard: www.pedersenlennard.co.za
