Plastic Classic by Pili Wu

File under:
Industrial Design


Written by Brian Ling (Design Sojourn)
Apr 17, 2012


4 Comments


Pili Wu, a Taiwanese Industrial Design student, does an interesting mash-up between an ubiquitous plastic stool and an expensive Qing Dynasty hardwood chair.

He writes on his website:

Plastic chairs and stools have been present for a very long time, yet interestingly nobody knows about the designer or inventor of plastic stools, but it’s cheap price, simple structure and fast production has enabled its popularity, so popular that it has turned into a “classic” design that nobody has every really noticed. Similarly, loop chair is another classic of traditional Chinese furniture, its elegant and reliable structure represents a certain social status and position. The naming of Plastic Classic, is aiming to redefine the design of such unknown “classical” cheap plastic stool; combining mass-produced cheap stool with a contradicting traditional loop chair of elegant structure and expensive imagery…

I’m not sure how stable it is now when compared with the original plastic stool (in the image above), but what a great exploration. I wonder though if we could reinterpret such an unnoticed “classic” object in a different way? I love to hear your thoughts?





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Comments

Karen
Apr 20, 12 – 10:43 am

Thanks for sharing the works of Wu. Very clever manipulation of style into the product form. I went to original site and found that the designer calls himself a mix blood. Quote: ‘父親是道地南投民間的閩南人，母親是道地花蓮玉里的客家人，我留著兩種民族的血液，我是個本土道地的新生”混血兒”。

If that was the case, many of us are mixed blood.

He seems to trying to play the usual into the unusual which is the first immediate impression. But the style is really special. To me, I suspect you may be thinking along similar lines as you finished off with a few doubts yourself.

Cheers!

Karen Fu
Apr 20, 12 – 10:46 am

Take this corrected one as the autocorrection just messed up my typing… Apologies

Thanks for sharing the works of Wu. Very clever manipulation of style into the product form. I went to original site and found that the designer calls himself a mix blood. Quote: ‘父親是道地南投民間的閩南人，母親是道地花蓮玉里的客家人，我留著兩種民族的血液，我是個本土道地的新生”混血兒”。

If that was the case, many of us are mixed blood.

He seems to be playing around the usual into the unusual, which is the first immediate impression. But the style is really special. To me, I suspect you may be thinking along similar lines as you finished off with a few doubts yourself.

Cheers!

Brian (Design Sojourn)
Apr 29, 12 – 10:34 pm

Hi Karen, you read my mind! Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts.

Karen
Apr 30, 12 – 1:08 am

You’re welcome!


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