‘There is a fundamental need for a new bed design’ – Rooms Studio
Best known for its groundbreaking, avant-garde furniture which sits somewhere in the middle of the art-design-architecture Venn diagram, Rooms Studio was founded by designers Nata Janberidze and Keti Toloraia in 2007. Though the practice has produced some of Tiblisi’s most exciting contemporary tables, chairs, rugs and lighting, it also has an interior design arm and a string of thought-provoking exhibitions under its belt.
At this year’s Milan design week, for example, Rooms Studio exhibited six unusual beds – from a wooden single framed by a headboard and a set of steps to a double sculpted from exhaust pipes and topped with a metallic mattress. They hope that the eye-catching designs will challenge our understanding of the everyday piece of furniture and usher in a new dawn for furniture designers.
As the evenings become darker and colder, and we spend more time tucked up in bed underneath cosy duvets, we speak to the duo about the future of the bedroom and how we might think creatively about how we might furnish them...
What was the idea behind the ‘Bedroom’ exhibition?
It is quite simple. The idea of working on a bed collection was born out of a fundamental need for a new bed design – a challenge we often encounter during our interior design projects as we haven’t seen many contemporary beds.
The concept behind the Milan show was to make a single bedroom with six different beds displayed in a circular shape, as if they were having a conversation with each other. The exhibition is curated with a touch of surrealism.
How did you approach each bed design?
We approached the design process as if we were curating beds for a hotel or a house that is imbued with character and narrative.
Each bed was different in style and materials but was still a continuation of our previous works and was crafted out of materials we’ve used in the past. Bed ‘N4’ is the continuance of our ‘Wild Minimalism’ collection – we used reclaimed timber and basalt stone and re-interpreted our designs from the past by using the same materials and crafting techniques or an element of the stairs in that bed.
All of them are charged with their own stories, for example, beds ‘N1’, ‘N2’ and ‘N3’ were inspired by an imaginary hotel room. And the double-sized ‘Daybed’, which is made of aluminium sheets and a silver mattress on top, could be the one used for a daytime experience. Meanwhile, bed ‘N5’ is an extension of our recent metal display structure on wheels which we’ve made for the exhibition at Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp Museum (M HKA Museum). It also has an element of the casted bull from our ethnographical motifs as well.
What intrigues you most about the modern bedroom?
Bedrooms are essential spaces in our daily lives, serving as intimate sanctuaries where we begin and end each day. They are deeply personal rooms that carry the elements of our inner worlds. This presentation evokes a sense of dreamy, surreal space – a getaway from everyday life into a place within.
A bed has appeared to be a really demanding object and we became even more interested to design it further more. Besides a good mattress, it is also important to have a thoughtful frame that is functional and comfortable too. roomsstudio.net
