Presented on Saturday 29th October during Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven, The Dutch Design Award 16 honored Christien Meindertsma’s Flax Chair. Winner of the Product category, the talented designer impressed the international jury all on fronts and won the FUTURE Award, the big prize for the most promising design for the future.
With the Flax Chair, Chritien Meindertsma once again strikes with her thorough approach. As a designer, she has been conducted researches into the potential of flax as a material for many years. She even bought a farm to gain understanding of how the material can be cultivated and processed. The Flax Project.
Ms. Meindertsma with some flax. Credit Ilvy Njiokiktjien for The New York Times
The Flax Project started in 2009 with a collection of products that Christien Meindertsma designed for Thomas Eyck. The collection was made in collaboration with traditional ropemaker Touwslagerij Steenbergen and woodworkers Kuperus & Gardenier. Explore her Flax Project Here.
photo studio aandacht
Flax Chair is more than just another chair
It is the result of long-term research into the qualities of Flax; a desire to reinstate the value of a largely underrated fibre (the short flax fibre), and seeking to connect with Dutch companies to launch a new product on the market. “Working in collaboration with Label Breed and Enkev, these efforts culminated in an astonishingly elegant result. The jury considers the FLAX Chair an excellent example of what contemporary design can achieve.”
The biodegradable chair combines the natural fibers of wool and flax with strong bio-plastic fibers, resulting in a material that can be heat-pressed into unbelievable shapes.
photo studio aandacht
Dutch Design Awards (DDA) were awarded in six categories. In addition, there were special prizes for young talent (Young Designer Award), clients (Best Client Award) and a Public Award.
Christien Meindertsma explores the life of products and raw materials. For her first book, Checked Baggage (2004), Christien purchased a container filled with a week’s worth of objects confiscated at security checkpoints in Schiphol Airport after 9/11. She meticulously categorized all 3267 items and photographed them on a white seamless background. Christien’s second book, PIG 05049 (2007), is an extensive collection of photographic images that documents an astounding array of products that different parts of an anonymous pig called 05049 could support. With this book, Christien reveals lines that link raw materials with producers, products and consumers that have become so invisible in an increasingly globalized world.
With her designs Christien Meindertsma aims to regain understanding of processes that have become so distant in industrialization. Her work has been exhibited in MOMA (New York), The V&A (London) and the Cooper Hewitt Design museum (New York). For her book PIG 05049 she won three Dutch Design Awards (2008) as well as an Index award (2009). Christien graduated from the Eindhoven Design Academy in 2003.
Keep up to date with the Flax community through social media:
Facebook: The European Confederation of Flax and Hemp
Instagram: @wearelinen
Twitter: @wearelinen
Pinterest: We Are Linen
Vimeo: We are Linen
