CGD

Lasvit keeps annually expanding its portfolio of designers with more and more significant figures from the ranks of both Czech and foreign creators and their exceptional designs. At the last year's Milan design week, it mainly caused a stir with its Yakisugi collection, designed by the leading Japanese architect Kengo Kuma.

Visiting a Czech glassworks, Kuma was captivated by the wooden forms which are protected against the heat of the red-hot molten glass by being soaked in water. The artist decided to leave them dry, and thus intentionally subject them to destruction which is, however, specifically creative: before the wood is completely consumed by the sizzling mass, it leaves an imprint of its structure on it. The process results in a magical fusion of the two materials, and every lighting object created this way is unique and original. Kengo Kuma's collection is a tribute to Czech glassmaking and, simultaneously, to the traditional Japanese method of wood protection and conservation, which is exactly called yakisugi and is based on singeing the wood surface. Kuma thus managed to fully employ the mastery of Czech craftsmen and at the same time remain faithful to his own culture, and elevate both to splendid works of art. This actually why Lasvit is so powerful: it has the potential to motivate the addressed artists and inspire them to exploits exceeding the individual categories such as design, art, lighting, object, sculpture, or installation.

Tereza Bruthansová