Italian furniture and interior design studio Savio Firmino has unveiled a collection of 16 chairs inspired by some of the world’s most iconic architectural landmarks. Titled CITYNG, and designed in collaboration with artist Cosimo De Vita, the collection was exhibited at the 2021 Salone del Mobile in September. The iconic design event, which was curated this year by Stefano Boeri, came one month after the Salone del Mobile appointed Maria Porro as its new president.
The collection of 16 chairs depicts both a geographical journey between West and East and a temporal journey between tradition and contemporary design. “The chair not only becomes a symbolic object of the cities but also symbolically represents their values, traditions, and cultural substratum,” explains Savio Firmino. “It starts in Europe from Florence, the hometown of both Cosimo and the Savio Firmino company, continues to Milan, the city of the Salone and of design par excellence, to then continue to Rome, Paris, Barcelona and, beyond the European borders, passing through Moscow, Petra, New York, Agra and finally Wǔhàn.”
The chairs are handcrafted from solid wood and decorated with a digitally controlled pantograph to achieve ornate details. The materials and processes used to create the chairs can be completely traced and certified through Blockchain technology, a feature which Savio Firmino believes is the first instance of the Blockchain being used in furniture and interior design.
The designers have also created an NFT associated with the collection, in the form of a video made during the collection’s exhibition at the Salone del Mobile. Described by the designers as a “postcard in motion,” the video will be stored in an encrypted, certified format, with proof of authenticity and unrepeatability. This unique aspect of the collection represents one of the first NFTs produced of an event, as opposed to NFTs of objects or images, as demonstrated by Refik Anadol’s recent data art NFTs auctioned by Sotheby’s Hong Kong, or Paul Rudolph’s Edersheim Residence, which was listed as an NFT in April 2021.
Savio Firmino’s architectural furniture comes weeks after Jean Nouvel revealed a “dazzling and lasting” kitchen designed for interiors brand Reform. In August, meanwhile, furniture giant IKEA announced that it would begin selling renewable energy to households worldwide, starting in Sweden, while in July, fellow furniture giant Herman Miller completed its acquisition of Knoll in a $1.8 billion merger to create the rebranded company “MillerKnoll.”
5 Comments
Truth - Trust - Reputaion , is that enough?
If not please add Repair - Refurbish - Resold
Happy to give more info if needed
I'd like to hear an abbreviated version of the discussion as to what level the environmental costs of using blockchain and NFTs are offset by their benefits.
The Blockchain system used is an Italian Net , realized by a Benefit Company named Apuana Sb. Their Blockchain is based on Proof of Stake (PoS) and not on Proof of Work (PoW). As you maybe know is a different system that include goals like economic efficiencies & carbon free footprint. One of the obbligation of the Benefit Company is to pursue higher standard of Sustainability, for that reason Apuana Sb will develop to a system of Pure Proof of Stake (PPoS). There is still some cost of the energy, but much less than use crap furniture that you need to change any two/three years...
A digital certificate is "proof of work", but the physical object you hold with your hand isn't. What does blockchain have to do with crap furniture - aside from trying to con someone into buying it?
What's next - blockchain for chicken eggs to assure that they are genuine? Somebody is probably already working on that ...
The physical object have a chip inside where you can check the digital certicate.... hope someboby is already working on blockchain for genuine parmigiano, so that anyhow can understand the difference with "parmesan"...
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