The Shape Finders
Marmoleum stories
Unification
"We love the Dutch word 'vormgever', literally a person who gives shape. Giving shape to thoughts, objects, products and spaces is what we do.”
In 2008 Studio Daphna Laurens was founded with the aspiration to combine industrial design, applied art and fine art. Daphna Laurens is the unification of Daphna Isaacs Burggraaf and Laurens Manders (both associates). The Eindhoven based twosome graduated at the Design Academy Eindhoven.
Daphnalaurens.nl
Seemingly effortless
Studio Daphna Laurens creates characterful products, objects and spaces with sophisticated combinations of shapes, materials and colours. The studio works on the design of poetic as well as straightforward industrially manufactured products and strives to create seemingly effortless quality with no artistic compromises made.
In 2020 the two designers were invited by Forbo to test a new Furniture linoleum development. In a series of trials with the material the bending and covering of very small radii was investigated, exploring the technical limits as well as the aesthetic characteristics. The two prototypes, ‘Sample Shelving Unit’ and ‘Sample Bench’, were exhibited during the Stockholm Furniture fair.
More information about the Stockholm Furniture fair
Everything But the Desktop!
‘On top organisers’, ‘above lamp’ and a ‘beside chair’ are the products designed by the Daphna Laurens for Transitions II, an initiative by the Dutch company Baars & Bloemhoff.
For Everything But the Desktop! the two designers went in search of the extreme limits of malleability. With a desire to use the material in ways it wasn’t designed for, they glued together two layers of Forbo Desktop and thus created a two-tone and also double-sided, flexible material.
The name of the material (Forbo Desktop) then guided the way in considering the objects that would ultimately take shape: as organisers, a lamp and an easy chair for work. These give insight into, and play with, the various properties (colour, texture, malleability) of the material.
Recreation of the future
On behalf of Dutch Invertuals and Droomparken, Daphna Laurens designed, in collaboration with Chris Collaris Architects, the interior of a recreational entity.
‘Buitenhuis’ narrates about recreation of the future. In its design it represents a marriage between functional design and sensory experience. The interior of the entity surrounds you with pure materials and warm colours of nature making you feel being simultaneously in and outside.
For the floor Daphna Laurens selected the warmTerracotta Marmoleum solid 3370
The New Home
‘Furnishing’ their new home felt to Daphna Laurens more as an exciting ‘project’ rather than a obligatory undertaking. Being familiar with Marmoleum and its unique properties, it was not difficult to decide on what would become 'the foundation’ of their home.
By assigning the Marmoleum Solid colours, Berlin Red, Vintage Blue and Cirrus Cookie, all three levels in their house were given their own ‘identity’.
Marmoleum
All other choices concerning the interior design were based on those rudiments. Not only were they referring to the colour palette, also the subtle matt surface texture of the Marmoleum was taken into account. A three-layer soft wood was selected to add even more warmth and tactility to their home. Additional colours applied to the walls, curtains and furniture pieces were carefully selected to work in alliance with the floor and wooden elements in the house.
Find out more about the 'Buitenhuis' project
Find out more about the 'Everything but the desktop' project
With special thanks to:
Daphna Laurens
Gal Keshet | directing, filming and editing
Simone de Vries | consultancy
Gena Haensel | transcription
Photographs on this page are made by:
Mike Roelofs | portrait Daphna Laurens
Ronald Smits I ‘Buitenhuis’
Daphna Laurens I ‘Everything But The Desktop’
Daphna Laurens | the New Home - the interior