| 
There's a reassuring quality-endurance, solidity-to all the pieces from Vancouver éminence grise Niels Bendtsen. To stand among his effortlessly buoyant sectional seating, his clever foam and wood chairs, his bracingly spare modular shelving, is to give oneself over to a coherent intelligence. Judges Ross Taylor, Brent Comber and Maddy Kelly applauded Bendtsen's problem-solving and innovation; but what his clientele sees is a seamless collection that's able to consider nature-the bend of a length of wood, say, or the allegedly unbreakable force of gravity-and mould it to the needs of efficiency and comfort.
Bendtsen, 68, moved to Vancouver from Copenhagen in 1951. He apprenticed with his cabinetmaker father, then opened the first of a series of interiors outlets-Danet (1963, in West Vancouver), then Inform Interiors (1984)-that have evolved over the decades into his current outpost, the 30,000-square-foot Omer Arbel-designed space on Water Street, where his Bensen line is featured. He's also found success with the much-discussed Ribbon chair (1975), now in the New York Museum of Modern Art's permanent collection, and the Aura stool (1985), 10,000 of which populate Starbucks cafés throughout North America.
Underpinning the business is a commitment to sustainability not through
reclaimed materials, but through that reach for permanence.
His designs, including recent additions like the well-proportioned Tokyo chair for Poliform, are almost shocking in their economy. Vancouver has had a crush on modernist furniture Bendtsen's whole life; as seen in our reverence for nature, there's an abiding love, here, for all that is clean, careful and conscientious.
|
| |
|
Judges
Furniture
BRENT COMBER works with solid masses of (often reclaimed) wood to create furnishings that speak poetically of his Pacific Northwest home.
ROSS TAYLOR is the owner of Gabriel Ross, a Victoria furniture store that features such lines as Herman Miller, Knoll and Fritz Hansen.
MADDY KELLY is president of the luxury Calgary furniture store Domicile Interiors, which she opened in 1998.
ONES TO WATCH
Furniture
Robert Faulkner
Furniture designer Robert Faulkner says he doesn’t believe in trying to be different. We’d argue, though, that he’s separated himself from the pack whether he meant to or not. The Edmonton-based designer, a recent graduate of the University of Alberta’s industrial design program, exudes a purist philosophy that carries through his work, from the design itself (the elegant, arcing legs of a side table, say) to the materials he selects (like the solid Eastern Birch used in the pictured Flow chair). Judge Brent Comber notes that Faulkner’s work has an honesty that communicates "his love of process and building." Comber predicts: "We’ll no doubt see some great things from him in the months ahead."-Kristine Sostar
|
|
|
