Location:
Paris, France
Year:
2024
Fuzzy Low Chair begins with a familiar typology and takes it somewhere less predictable. Designed by Nicolas Zanoni, the piece is built around a process in which weaving and casting become part of the same structural language.
Aluminium wire is first woven by hand and pressed into a flat surface. The resulting mesh is then enclosed within sand-cast aluminium moulds, through a three-stage casting process that forms the backrest, seat and the element connecting them, including the armrests. The molten aluminium flows through the woven mesh, embedding it into the cast and turning what might normally be a surface treatment into part of the chair’s structure.
There is no welding. Instead, the three cast components come together as a continuous construction, leaving the woven aluminium visible across the surface. The resulting texture gives the material an unexpected softness, despite the inherent hardness of aluminium.
The process is characteristic of Zanoni’s wider practice, which explores industrial materials through repetitive, tactile and often highly manual processes. His objects occupy an interesting space between furniture and sculpture: they remain functional, but their construction and materiality are impossible to separate from their visual identity.
Fuzzy Low Chair also suggests another way of approaching outdoor furniture. Rather than beginning with the conventional requirements of a furniture category and applying a finish or material to it, Zanoni allows the making process itself to determine the character of the object. The result is a low chair that could sit as naturally within a landscape or garden as it could within a gallery, an object for use, but also one whose material logic is worth looking at closely.
Hand-woven and cast aluminium
65 × 79 × 52 cm
Unique piece
