Joris Laarman

The Dutch tourism board recently launched their 'Holland, the Original Cool' campaign telling us that the Netherlands is a cool place to visit. Though not featured in the video one person who adds to the image of Amsterdam as a vibrant, artistic centre is Joris Laarman. He is a Dutch furniture designer who blends the natural shapes which surround him with cutting edge technology drawn from fields as diverse as computer animation to engine construction. It's a blending of form and function which makes it something more than art.

Joris Laarman - Bone Chair

His Bone Furniture is one of his most intriguing works, not just for the organic yet ethereal shapes which are created, but also because of the story behind that creation. A section of General Motors had developed a program which mimicked the way trees and bones reinforced weak parts of their own structure, balanced between strength and weight. Aided by new developments in 3D printing Joris took this tool and applied it to furniture, with striking results.

One of his first creations was 'Heatwave', a Rococo-esque sculpture. At least that's what I thought when I first saw it. However, it wouldn't just be a piece of sculpture, that's not how Joris thinks. It's a radiator, a perfectly boring piece of equipment, sitting plainly on the wall - usually.

Heatwave

Joris makes art, but art with a function. It's cool and it's original and it's Dutch.