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| RAW Studios |
We are very excited that RAW Studios will be participating in collaboration with Entropy at the 2010 Food/Wine Design Fair.
Having been struck by the beauty and simplicity of RAW's Sidekik at the 2010 Joburg Art Fair's Southern Guild collection, I was eager to learn more about their furniture designs and processes and set off to Pretoria to conduct an interview.
Nestled on a rocky outcrop in Boschkop (Pretoria), the RAW Studios workshop is surrounded by bushveld, flooded by natural light and teeming
with creativity. It is easy to tell why Peet van Straaten has chosen this remote location in which to live and work on his distinctive furniture pieces.
Peet has not always called this his home. After completing his conscription, working as a cook for a travel safari and as a technical stage manager for the State Theatre, he became restless and had an irrepressible desire to make furniture. He had no formal training as a carpenter or designer and started out with “just big ideas”. What started out as an experiment turned into a passion.
After having completed a two-year apprenticeship with a Swiss furniture maker, Peet moved to the Netherlands where he ran Solo Design Studio for
five years. Influenced by minimalist Dutch design (where form follows function), his furniture pieces started changing from sculptural once-off pieces
with his focus turning to “decent problem solving ” and sober product design.
His designs have evolved into more user-centered and modular systems, enabling consumers to stack or reconfigure them according to their personal
needs. RAW designs can also be flat packed and their Klick range works on “old-school” Chinese and Japanese joinery systems that do not require the use of heavy tools, steel or wood-glue to keep pieces together - all you need is a hammer to simply ‘klick’ the components in place. According to Peet it is the problem solving around creating interesting, permanent, glue-less joints, that makes him tick.
For the Food/Wine/Design Fair, Peet is working on something top secret. It is something he has been working on for quite some time and he does not wish
to give away too much information. Visitors will also be able to walk away with ikonik lockers, that have been designed in collaboration with conceptual artist Jacques Coetzer.
For more information visit RAW Studios at: www.rawstudios.co.za or Entropy at: www.entropydesign.co.za |
