MANIERA 32

MANIERA is presenting a new furniture series by Japanese architect Junya Ishigami. The pieces will first be presented at ALCOVA during Milan Design Week from April 15 — 21, after which they will be on display at the gallery from April 25 onwards.
 
Ishigami’s work – both his architecture and his furniture – is elegant, delicate, understated and seemingly simple. But the apparent simplicity and sobriety of Ishigami’s designs is misleading, concealing its structural complexity and the efforts of the design team.
 
Ishigami’s first building, the KAIT Workshop at ‘Kanagawa Institute of Technology’, in 2008, marked instant success for the architect. The design was a forest-like structure of 305 slender white columns, each with specific dimensions and a unique orientation, surrounded only by glass, and contained by a simple steel roof. It took two years to determine the size, position and rotation of each column. Some other notable works include the ‘Park Groot Vijversburg Visitor Center’ (2017), the Botanical Garden Art Biotop ‘Water Garden’ (2018), the ‘Serpentine Pavilion’ (2019), and the ‘House & Restaurant’ (2022). His latest project is the ‘Zaishui Art Museum’ (2024) in China. This linear museum of one kilometer long on a lake, is a powerful architectural gesture amid the overwhelming nature around.
 
Ishigami prefers lightness to mass, fragility to gravity, and this is also visible in his designs for the new MANIERA furniture series, consisting of dining chairs and rocking chairs, a low Zaisu chair, an atelier table, a dining table, a low glass table, two partitions and seven lamps. Materials used are stainless steel, leather, rattan, glass and wood. A part of the collection was orginally designed for Ishigami’s cave-like ‘House & Restaurant’. Other pieces were conceived for Junya’s mother’s home, the ‘House’(currently under construction).
 
The MANIERA 32 furniture will not be issued as limited editions, but will be made to order at an attractive price. This is a conscious choice by both Junya Ishigami and MANIERA, who wish to give the widest possible audience access to the pieces, available on MANIERA’s website and a small range of carefully selected furniture stores around the world.
 
 
Opening
Thursday, April 25th
6 – 9 pm