Back to nature
After several years of chrome and steel dominating interiors, materials such as rattan, wicker and bamboo are staging a comeback. Once the fashion equivalent of cheesecloth and sandals, these naturally derived materials have left behind the stylistic train wreck of the 1970s and are being presented in sleeker forms.
Mikiya Kobayashi (mikiyakobayashi.com) is one designer using natural materials for contemporary living spaces. His rattan chairs exhibited at this year's Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan attracted attention because of their comfortable elegance.
Elegant is not a word normally associated with rattan, but his chairs enhance a room instead of dominating it. In bright reds and yellows, they have been transformed from rattan's former sludgy palette of beige and taupe. Kobayashi says his inspirations come from daily life and that his pieces are fun and are easy to slot into a room even if there is already an existing theme.
These materials are also catching on as more people opt for ecologically sustainable products these days.
'Rattan regrows within five to 10 years after it is cut down as long as the natural habitat is maintained, whereas wood takes 50 to 70 years,' Kobayashi says.
Derived from palm trees, rattan can be sourced from Indonesia, Malaysia or Sri Lanka. The Philippines has plenty of rattan, and designer Kenneth Cobonpue (kennethcobonpue.com), whose furniture is carried by Ovo (ovo.com.hk), uses the material to good effect. His Manolo sofa, inspired by footwear brand Manolo Blahnik, is made of stained rattan vines woven over a steel frame.
Slinging out from the back is a bow to recline in hammock style, but Cobonpue's design borrows little from colonial styles with the overall look being starkly modern. He also fashions rattan into lamps of burnished and tawny colours, which he says remind him of spiders and insects. His hanging lamps are inspired by nature with their blobby, fluid shapes reminiscent of jellyfish and sea anemones.
And if you are wary of investing in rattan because you fear it might split, rest assured that it's durable and resistant despite its natural origins. It's also highly versatile, Cobonpue says. 'You can bend, twist and weave the materials that I use, such as rattan, in endless ways.'
Rattan is so versatile that it has also been tempting designers who usually work in the unlikely area of electronics. Toshihiko Sakai (sakaidesign.com) is more used to producing digital cameras or microphones, but recently he has come up with a rattan and cloth seat in the shape of a sleeping Buddha that he has christened the Nap.
Rattan's relative, wicker, is also making a comeback. Wicker is sturdy yet easy to move around. It's also getting groovier.
Patricia Urquiola's chairs are perfect for creating a splash outdoors or in. Flamboyant in bright reds and sky-blues, they are available from Emu (emu.it). Wicker crops up in more traditional neutral tones with the Dafne bench, although its shape has been revamped with an opening in the back. It is also available at Emu.
Like rattan, wicker used to suffer from a heavy, colonial look but the new designers experimenting with these materials - many from Southeast Asia - are keen to push new ways of showcasing it. However, the quality available varies hugely and one thing to watch out for if you are looking for a large piece is to make sure there are no poles poking through.
When examining a product, give the underside a look. That said, maintaining wicker is easy. All it needs to keep it looking good is a spot of dusting. And if it becomes grimy, spray it with water and leave it to dry in the shade. Being left outdoors used to be the traditional fate of wicker and rattan furniture, but now that it has risen above the colonial-style cliche it's often the easiest way to give a living room a soft, organic look.
Another natural material being revived is bamboo. Such is the appeal of bamboo that even designers in Scandinavia - far from the Southeast Asian regions where it is most often sourced - have started experimenting with it. Finnish company Artek (artek.fi) has spent the past three years working with bamboo and the results were displayed at Milan 2008.
Artek's Bambu range has been developed as part of the company's commitment to using natural materials not only for environmental reasons but also for bamboo's ability to take genuinely refreshing forms. Artek's three-legged side table could easily look harsh in a different material but works because of bamboo's inherent ease and softness.
The company also has a lightweight chair for slinking into after a hard day and a lacquered bench in soft caramel tones that could be moved into a hallway or used as a substitute for dining chairs if you like eating canteen style. Designers such as Nicolai Harmsen, who has a factory in Vietnam (saigoninteriors.net), use bamboo sparingly to decorate table sets and glossy lacquered boxes.
And Vitra (vitra.com) has made bamboo buttons for one of its latest sofas, the asymmetric Polder, which takes it as far away from its typical 70s incarnation in blinds and room dividers as can be imagined. Alongside wicker and rattan, these natural materials are being deconstructed for a new eco-aware audience with not a heavy brown armchair in sight.
