STANDARD COLLECTION BY KNAUF AND BROWN
By Abigail Yue Wang
Forget about the mindless automation, Knauf and Brown’s latest design Standard Collection will be a manual love for you and your room.
The young Vancouver-based duo has touched on industrial design, graphic, film and photography, but perhaps to say “touched” is an understatement. Their fondness of materials and everyday space permeates this long-term friendship/collaboration. Winning Core77 Awards 2013, their Profile Chair which folds on one axis is one of their best efforts to foster a supple disposition into functional design. Their latest Standard Collection is another statement to suggest that our connection with objects goes beyond the immovable custody, where items in life surround us side by side, fixated and untouched – we see them so much till we see them no more.
“Standard” is admittedly “manual”, in which touching and moving constitutes the heart of the collection. All in reticent palette on top of black, the standard floor coater desires to be moved around in the living room, the vanity mirror asks to be rotated between self-reflection and photograph collection, and the table lamp can be played with angels and positions. Knauf and Brown bears in mind the utilitarian freedom; but more, functionality doesn’t dictate, objects are companions, not invisible upholstery. Knauf and Brown’s design keeps the touchable out of insulation, they address the ease of use, but eventually, to appreciate, one is expected to make an effort.
