Gabriel Tan’s approach to design feels almost Scandinavian
with its minimalist aesthetics, but it’s even more inspired by
the Shaker movement, and why not also the Japanese quest
for sensual simplicity? “It’s all about compact luxury,” says
Gabriel Tan. “By breaking preconceived cultural conventions,
you take something familiar and turn it into something new.”
Luxury doesn’t have to be huge and use opulent materials,
according to Gabriel Tan. By reinterpreting the notion of
luxury, he manages to offer unique products which entail
new experiences. “It’s such a clever idea to hang a chair
on the wall like the Shakers did; why isn’t anyone doing it
today? I gave myself the goal of designing a chair that was
small and light enough to be hung on a wall, not upside
down, but upright for display like a sculpture.” The Stove
chair is an architectural device that creates free space, and
up on the wall it’s a sculpture as well, but the minimal shape
with just three legs is also an exemplary reduction to the
essentials of form and function. Gabriel Tan explains that he
chose to become a designer because it allowed him to
explore cultures, history, traditions, and how to cross and
break geographical and cultural boundaries.
Gabriel Tan is conveniently based in Singapore close to
Southeast Asian manufacturers as well as within easy reach
of the rest of the world. He is a co-founder of the international
design collective Outofstock, which presented the easy chair
Åhus as a tribute to Blå Station on occasion of their 30 year
anniversary in 2016. Today he works primarily on his own,
nonetheless participating in international workshops. ”I visited
the Hancock Shaker Village when I was teaching a summer
class at the University of Oregon in 2012. My friends John
and Wonhee Arndt from Studio Gorm and I organized a
design workshop, and the Stove chair is one of the results.”
What is your next project? ”I’m going to Havana to join
some designers I know to make things inspired by local
materials and craftsmanship in Cuba.”
What are you reading right now? “Sherry Turkie’s ‘Reclaiming
Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age’. There is a
lack of real connections in the world today, and I believe we
need more face-to-face interaction instead of the distractions
provided by smartphones, which proliferate everywhere in
our lives.”
And the last concert you went to? “I was at a concert by
Fleet Foxes just the other week here in Singapore. I love their
music and listening to them makes me want to grow a beard
and walk up a mountain!”
STOVE
Gabriel Tan
Behold the seat
Three legs and a short backrest; what more does a chair need? Gabriel Tan
has reinterpreted the minimalistic character of Shaker furniture, and especially
the unusual shape of the Shaker wood-fired stove. The Stove chair provides
comfort with its softened, convex seat and low back rest, which provides just
enough lumbar support. Use it wherever you like thanks to its reduced form,
or admire the finely crafted furniture icon hung from a peg rail or the included
wall-mounted peg. “The Shakers used to hang their stools upside down on the
wall in order to make space,” says Gabriel Tan. “I decided to hang it upright
and display it like a sculpture.” Gabriel, who lives in Singapore, was inspired
by the Hancock Shaker Village in Massachusetts, where he was part of an
international workshop to design Shaker-inspired products with designers from
all over the world.
