Twisted Wood – Seating by South Korean Furniture Designer Se Hwa Bae

Some fantastic furniture by Se Hwa Bae, a South Korean woodworker and furniture maker who lives in Paju, Korea. As soon as I turned my eye to his work by first feeling was “wow”, these are really spectacular. As I delved deeper it was great to see the details in these pieces, cutting strips of wood which are then steamed and clamped to keep the desired shape.

This whole method of making is particularly fresh in my mind because of my recent visit to the Barbican’s exhibition on Charles and Ray Eames. They had some fantastic moving imagery that showcased the production methods behind their bent plywood chairs, it’s really quite special to see this new production method at the time being harnessed in to functional objects.

Se Hwa Bae is doing something slightly different here, but in many ways the experimentation and principles behind it are very similar. The furniture is much more complex as he uses many strips of wood, but the actual forms are modern, striking, and quite sculptural. What’s impressive is you could envisage these as being computer generated, but they’re actually made in his workshop in South Korea by hand. So go on over to his gallery page to see more, you’ll be really surprised to his collection of beautiful furniture.

baesehwa.com

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