Monocle, Pure and simple

Monocle publishes Pure and simple in the Monocle Minute, in its On Design section, the day before Evolving Forms opens at St Vincents in Antwerp.

The piece sets out the collection as eight pieces in birch plywood: two types of table, three kinds of chair, a bench, a stool and a console. It reads the simplicity of the designs against the minimalism of Donald Judd, then draws the distinction that matters. Where Judd is fixed, the combinations here answer to how people actually live, so a stool serves as a nightstand as readily as an extra seat at a dinner.

Paul Trussler is quoted on the studio's position, that the work is rooted in a desire for simple solutions, and that a solution judged lightly might look dumb while carrying a considered philosophy behind it. Monocle records Mia Kim's years at Hermes and Chanel and Paul's as a maquette maker for Frank Gehry before he founded his own architectural practice.