A bench, a sofa, a bed, an architectural element, East and West, poetry and function. Taka fuses these concepts, producing a piece of furniture which is essentially free. The result is a versatile piece consisting of three elements: a solid wood frame, curved birch wood slats, and a mattress with a removable slipcover.
Created and produced in 1957, the same year that Dino Gavina and Kazuhide Takahama met at the XI Triennale di Milano, this multifunctional piece served to cement a fruitful and lasting relationship that had begun that very year with the Naeko sofa, the first outcome of this combination of creativity and production that was to generate some of the most representative pieces of Italian Furniture Design.
The Japanese background of the then young Kazuhide Takahama and his architectural training within the context of the Modern Movement, is identifiable in this piece through two evident features: first, the wholly "essential" quality of his aesthetic proposal, where any and all traces of ornamentation or frivolity are stripped away in the final product, and, secondly, its multifunctionality, an inherent feature of traditional Japanese interiors, where rooms and objects are defined by the flexibility of their use.
Created with no predefined function in mind, Taka can become whatever one chooses or needs, adapting to the surroundings, one's state of mind, the circumstances, or even the time of day (a day bed for a quick nap, a comfortable bench for sipping tea or a discreet place to sit and rest in a museum). The production process for this piece of furniture was an innovative venture for Gavina in his quest to overcome the prevailing rationalism of the times.
The piece conveys beauty without determining a specific function, appearing several decades before Western culture's fascination with austere Japanese aesthetics, primarily after the rise of minimalism in the late 1980s. Taka emerges as a symbol of sound design transcending time periods, trends, fashions and borders.
- Solid birch wood structure
- Layered slats in bended birch
- Upholstered mattress
- Mattress fabric 4m
- Roller fabric 1 m
Design:
Kazuhide Takahama
Year:
1957 (reedition 2004)
Manufacturer:
Santa & Cole
Created and produced in 1957, the same year that Dino Gavina and Kazuhide Takahama met at the XI Triennale di Milano, this multifunctional piece served to cement a fruitful and lasting relationship that had begun that very year with the Naeko sofa, the first outcome of this combination of creativity and production that was to generate some of the most representative pieces of Italian Furniture Design.
The Japanese background of the then young Kazuhide Takahama and his architectural training within the context of the Modern Movement, is identifiable in this piece through two evident features: first, the wholly "essential" quality of his aesthetic proposal, where any and all traces of ornamentation or frivolity are stripped away in the final product, and, secondly, its multifunctionality, an inherent feature of traditional Japanese interiors, where rooms and objects are defined by the flexibility of their use.
Created with no predefined function in mind, Taka can become whatever one chooses or needs, adapting to the surroundings, one's state of mind, the circumstances, or even the time of day (a day bed for a quick nap, a comfortable bench for sipping tea or a discreet place to sit and rest in a museum). The production process for this piece of furniture was an innovative venture for Gavina in his quest to overcome the prevailing rationalism of the times.
The piece conveys beauty without determining a specific function, appearing several decades before Western culture's fascination with austere Japanese aesthetics, primarily after the rise of minimalism in the late 1980s. Taka emerges as a symbol of sound design transcending time periods, trends, fashions and borders.
- Solid birch wood structure
- Layered slats in bended birch
- Upholstered mattress
- Mattress fabric 4m
- Roller fabric 1 m
Design:
Kazuhide Takahama
Year:
1957 (reedition 2004)
Manufacturer:
Santa & Cole
