Step into the world of Zieta Studio and two phrases instantly spring to thoughts: ‘playfulness’ and ‘pleasure’. The corporate, based by Oskar Zięta in 2007, has made a global title for itself over the previous 20 years by growing a method for inflating metal, which initially produced the pleasant, cartoon-like three-legged stool PLOPP.
The Polish model has had a long-term relationship with the London Design Competition, starting in 2009 as a part of the Younger Artistic Poland exhibition the place the PLOPP Stool was unveiled, then in 2010 when it created Blow & Roll, an enormous sculpture within the V&A’s John Madejski Backyard utilizing FiDU volumetric metallic enlargement.
Zieta Studio returned this 12 months with By way of Course of to Progress, a six-week set up held on the Brompton-based retailer of ‘preloved’ vogue firm Loop Era – a mission that heralds Polish and British creativity with companions Zieta Studio, BGY ID, On&On Designs, Let’s Artwork Basis and the Polish Cultural Institute.
Pictures by The Sparkle Content material Company that includes Zieta Studio’s PLOPP STOOL
The set up contained a fistful of merchandise together with the long-lasting PLOPP Stool, items from the dramatic mirror assortment (introduced in new colourway, jade) and a skateboard, alongside sculptural growth works which actually carry the volumetric increasing FiDU know-how to life and embody a full-size construction impressed by the ‘semi- inflated’ offcuts of the V&A 2010 set up.
On the steps have been three massive phrases in inflated metal studying ‘Blown with Love’. Nonetheless, whereas lots of the items they produce are designed to engender a smile, it will be flawed to imagine that Oskar and his spouse, Agata Świderska-Zięta, are something however lethal severe about their work. Oskar was finding out for an structure PhD at ETH Zurich when he developed the method.
As Agata explains: ‘He needed to check and develop completely different strategies of stabilising metallic sheets and various kinds of metal for structure – for structural pillars and supporting components.’ Oskar provides: ‘I attempted many, many various concepts to carry inside stress into two items of metallic sheet which have been two-dimensional. And in case you can put sufficient stress inside, you possibly can stabilise them and you’ll broaden them. They’ll come from 2D into 3D.’
Pictures by Agata Maziarz
Making an attempt to take experimental processes into structure isn’t easy. Shigeru Ban, as an example, as soon as constructed a home purely to show it was attainable to construct with cardboard tubes. So, to indicate that his course of may work, Oskar got here up with PLOPP. ‘He introduced it at completely different structure and technological occasions and, unexpectedly and never deliberately, it grew to become a design piece,’ remembers Agata.
Intriguingly, slightly than handing over the piece to a significant producer, they elected – bravely however very sensibly – to maintain all the pieces in-house. Spool ahead to at present and Zieta Studio has a manufacturing workshop in Zielona Góra and HQ in Wrocław, western Poland, and an 80-strong employees, growing artworks, furnishings, merchandise – and, sure, items of structure.
‘In the entire course of, typically I’m a designer and typically an artist. After which I have to be the supervisor, engineer, technologist, even transport individual. And fairly often a salesman,’ Oskar smiles. In the meantime, Agata is a lawyer, which is extraordinarily helpful with regards to defending IP throughout the globe. They’ve acquired loads of information of how completely different sides of a profitable enterprise perform en route.
Pictures courtesy of Zieta Studio
‘We needed to organise our personal manufacturing as a result of there was no different choice,’ Agata explains. ‘We didn’t suppose too many steps forward by way of being a gross sales firm. It got here up as a result of we needed to organise all the pieces. When you’ve got merchandise, you need to promote them. If you need to promote them, you need to do the advertising. We needed to study all of the steps. And, concurrently, we needed to develop the know-how. That’s why we tried to make new merchandise, new concepts.’
And it’s noticeable {that a} current chair, ULTRALEGGERA, is a extra clearly refined – to not point out jaw-droppingly gentle – piece of labor. It’s, as Oskar factors out, a chair designed to final for generations and turn into a household heirloom. As for the longer term? Properly, the pair are intriguingly coy, however one thing important is on the horizon. As a part of the UK/ Poland Season 2025 (March to November), Zieta Studio will return to London and there are mutterings of an set up inside the Fleet Road Quarter. Hold a really cautious eye on them.
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