EuroDesignExhibition: Tim Baute

For the last in our series of EuroDesignExhibition previews we travel to the spiritual home of Europe.

Belgium.

Aside from quite possibly Luxembourg, which only Luxembourgians would be cheeky enough to contend even counts, there can no country that has become more identified with the founding ideals of the European community than Belgium.

But has it lost its culture identity? Or is a cultural stronger than politics?

The question of creating a piece that represents your country wasn’t that easy.

For the moment it’s hard to ignore the political craziness in Belgium, so I tried to focus on something else.

‘The Atomium’ and old farming habits in my country inspire my stool. ‘The Atomium’, the big symbol of Belgium, was created for the World Exhibition in 1958. The construction consists of crystallized structures that form the balls of the monument. This inspired me to create the seating of my stool. I folded a metal sheet in a crystallized shape to create a 3-dimensional shape in the seating.

A stool also directly reminds me of three legged stools farmers once used to milk their cows. The stool had to be light and comfortable. I redesigned this stool, but now for relaxing and not for hard work.

Another stool inspired by milking … if that isn’t symbolic of our modern society!

Tim Baute’s stool can be compared to that of Alexander Gufler, and all other entries, as part of EuroDesignExhibition – Sit down please” 40 Stools from 40 Countries” at Teilmöbliert, Lorettostrasse 9, 40219 Düsseldorf from May 6th – 20th.

A complete list of competitors can be found at:

http://www.anonymegestalter.de/

http://www.teilmoebliert.com/