Huabiao Shan from Hangzhou is a Chinese furniture designer with a natural aesthetic who works closely with natural materials and crafts them delicately into contemporary pieces. His latest work is called Autumn Whisper and was made in autumn 2011.
Via Eightsix.co
“Shang Xia is not a second line of Hermes; it shares the same engagement of craftsmanship quality, but with Chinese inspiration. The best strategy of realise this is staying loyal to our philosophy and to use excellent raw materials, great craftsmanship and contemporary design.”
Read the interview at Luxury Society
We all have experience of creatively using a product in different context, looking around ,we can sit on a table , use folding door to crack walnuts, use shoe to hit bugs, people are natural creative, we also want to encourage people to think and use their product creatively.
X-Plus is the concept that providing product without definition of functionality, we design it with beautiful structure has rich possibilities. so this is the project that we also want to work together with our user, discover possibilities of how to use it, Table, Stool, shelf, bench, toy…
Another beauty of X-plus is Stacking!, we are serious about whole process, not just beautiful product but also meaningful, Stacking multiple x-pluses to saving space for storage and shipping ! The photo was shot when the designer Shi Xiaoxi packs x-pluses after the show 
Designed by Shi Xiaoxi
Mortise and tenon is one of the traditional Chinese craft, which was generally used in furniture and architecture. The idea of the stool is to combine hand-craft with modern technology and tries to make mass production possible.
The sculptural streamlined base and legs linked through the ‘bridge’ parts create the structural balance. By different range of colors, the stool gives a modern look and an image in contemporary Chinese design.
Designed by Studio KDSZ
Taking the chair archetype and placing within it chairs that are progressively smaller. Each chair has hand cut grooves on the inside edges of its seat frame as well as notches in the seat back. These grooves range from 1/2” wide to 1/8” wide. The mechanism works so that the pegs fit into the grooves of the chair one size bigger and slides into place so that the horizontal edge between the chair seat and back line up. The simple mechanism allows the chairs to be taken apart and put together with ease.
Designed by Vivian Chu
The society we live in is changing, shouldn’t the interactive side of these daily objects change with us? Perhaps the function of the objects stay, but it is the process of how we interact with them that must change.
Should there be different chairs designed for people with different sitting habits? Do you sit on all four legs or just two? Do you continuously shake your leg? Or do you like to sit with your back facing the public?
This series of chairs illustrates each of these stories. Will these chairs become props that normalize the unwelcomed habits? Or will they act as therapy to “cure” one’s syndromes?
Designed by Alice Wang
The concept of the chair comes from chinese philosophy “Wai-Yuan-Nei-Fang”~ a square surrounded with a circle.In between these two elements, it generates a left-over which brings out the character of chinese furniture and at the same time creates a conversation of tradition and modern.
Due to the specialty of the form and structure, the user needs to be aware of their posture when sitting. Different from the idea of comfort, the chair talks more about what is emphasized in traditional chinese furniture :”the manner of sitting”.
Designed by Studio KDSZ
In Taiwan, plastic stools are very popular, seen on streets, alleys, and by street food stalls or ban dou (traditional Taiwanese outdoor banquet, seen at weddings or celebrations). Plastic chairs and stools have been present for a very long time, yet interestingly nobody knows about the designer or inventor of plastic stools, but it’s cheap price, simple structure and fast production has enabled its popularity, so popular that it has turned into a “classic” design that nobody has every really noticed. Similarly, loop chair is another classic of traditional Chinese furniture, its elegant and reliable structure represents a certain social status and position. The naming of Plastic Classic, is aiming to redefine the design of such unknown “classical” cheap plastic stool; combining mass-produced cheap stool with a contradicting traditional loop chair of elegant structure and expensive imagery, hence creating a new classic; a strong contrast is made due to differing history and background, as well as the cheap and expensive expression that people already had in mind, Plastic Classic is a chair that has two personalities in one body.
The Alive sofa is a experimental furniture made of large numbers of gingko leaves.
Zhan Zhang and Yi Zou made it for about a month by hand, gluing the leaves one by one. It is a sofa with its own life, as the leaves will deteriorate during time.
Designed by Tree-Studio
Chinese designer Zhang Zhoujie founded his eponymous digital laboratory in 2010 after graduating from MA Industrial Design at Central Saint Martins, building on a background in traditional Chinese fine art. His main inspiration behind founding the experimental lab was to explore the latest trends towards parametric design and to investigate new digital workflows which seamlessly integrate the latest computer technology with Wu Wei. Wu Wei is one of the principles of the philosophy of Taoism. It means action less, or lack of intervention. It is the principle by which the generation methods utilised in the digital laboratory are inspired. The goal of the lab is to use these new digital workflows to turn the virtual into the real, currently through the initiation of two projects, triangulation and simulation (currently under development)
PINWU is a Hangzhou based brand founded by Zhanglei, and also the founder and creative director of the design studio INNOVO. The PINWU products, most of them with a Chinese traditional touch, are minimalistic and use materials like bamboo and paper.
Visit the official site of PINWU
Shang Xia is a brand for art of living that promises a unique encounter with the heritage of Chinese design and craftsmanship. Together with the Hermes group, designer Jian Qiong Er established Shang Xia with a mission to create a lifestyle founded on the finest of Chinese design traditions. The collection of Shang Xia consists of furniture, porcelain, home wares, clothing and jewellery. Shan Xia’s first retail space uses memory shaped high-tech white fabric to create a dream like feeling, designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma.
Founded by Jian Qiong Er
This table design consists of a strong branched and thin steel legs structure that protrudes through the aluminum surface.
Designed by Liu Zhili
“I am always struggled about buying a product for only occasional use. Umbrella stand is one of them. It takes out space and is only used for the raining day. I thought what if I could find a necessity at home then redefine and reinterpret its usages to bring new product experiences. Then I found wooden stools, it has a perfect structure to hold the umbrellas when it is up side down.”
Designed by Carl Liu
