Following the previous post we feel we should say a few more words about the design duo Iskos-Berlin. Although the studio has only been around since 2010, founders Boris Berlin and Aleksej Iskos are veterans on the nordic design scene. Berlin co-founded, with Paul Christiansen, legendary Komplot Design studio in 1987 where also Iskos worked as an assistant.
Komplot worked mainly with furnishings for offices and public settings (with Källemo, Tendo Moko and Nola just no mention a few) developing an elusive modus operandi of using new or unexpected materials and mixing the formal with the irreverent. The studio also produced a number of experimental one-offs and exhibition pieces, many within the context of The Cabinetmakers’ Annual Autumn Exhibition.
With the emergence of new nordic design brands around the early 00’s, Komplot struck up collaborations with Gubi, Hay and Normann Copenhagen. Around the same time Komplot started to combine industrial aesthetics, like the Non chair for Källemo, with organic forms such as the GUBI chair for Gubi and sometimes integrating these expressions into a single piece like the Nobody chair for HAY. Although seemingly very different in terms of production and expression, these three chairs are all significant for the studio’s attention to detail and eagerness to explore new materials.
Iskos-Berlin is in many ways an extension of this methodology but seem increasingly concerned with expression and communication in their designs.Under the bell for Muuto is a large dome shaped polyester pendant that takes acoustics into consideration as does the PET-felt pendent Dancing for Menu. Bunny for Normann Copenhagen (discontinued?), echoing Italian 60’s/70’s pop design, has perhaps been the most playful project thus far. Maccaron (for Versus) and Baba (prototype/exhibition piece) explore the tactility of upholstered furniture with different types of 3-D knitted fabric.
But our all time (thus far) Iskos-Berlin favorite is Vase shelf – The Never-Ending Story for the SE 2013 exhibition, made in collaboration with ceramic artist Michael Geertsen and Fritz Hansen. Vase Shelf is essentially a freestanding shelf with massive wood slabs separated by ceramic vessels. Based on ancient types from various civilizations the vessels are all rendered in white, without any decorations or motifs. The self seem both archaic and futuristic at the same time, it seem to express or suggest something universal about the story of human experinace, the need to preserve, to keep and collect, the need to be civilized.
