London, United Kingdom
Benni Allan, lead architect and founder of EBBA Architects, gets inspiration from his travels to Spain, Japan, and China and people’s sitting habits around the world and creates a collection of furniture, made of solid wood.
“A lot of countries have a strong tradition of being very low, sitting on the floor. I’m interested in how different people sit,” Benni Allan explains.
“My idea was to make objects that question what you do with them, so not necessarily prescribing a use but doing something that forces you to engage in a certain way.”
The idea of the collection is based on the concept of “low sitting.”
Named the Low Collection, it is produced from high-quality, kiln-dried oak, which is milled using a specialist CNC machine to create precise geometries.
For each piece, specific curvatures are combined with strict horizontal or vertical lines.
Where pieces have been cross-cut, the end grain of the wood creates a grid of distinct patterns.
The furniture pieces are solid but the curvilinear forms soften them as a whole.
In the beginning, the Low Collection was just an idea in Benni Allan’s mind but Béton Brut founder Sophie Pearce suggested that they could work together and start manufacturing the collection.
Nowadays, Benni Allan’s collection is on display at the Béton Brut Art Gallery until the beginning of July.
Project: Low Collection
Architects: EBBA Architects
Designer: Benni Allan
