Designer Spotlight – LMD/studio Founder Lukas Machnik's Monument Collection
This week we take a closer look at LMD/studio founder Lukas Machnik's Monument Collection.
Lukas Machnik is an interior designer by trade. Having worked in the field for over a decade, he recognized a gap in the market for hyper-minimalist furniture. In response, starting in 2012, he designed a series of editioned chairs, benches and tables that became the Monument Collection.
Machnik's furniture designs embody reductionist aesthetics to such a degree that often all that is left is fundamental geometry. For example, in the piece above the chair form is reduced to three planes, perpendicular and adjacent to one another like X, Y and Z on a Cartesian coordinate plot. Their fundamental purity translates into their functional simplicity.
In Machnik's designs the traditionally cold aesthetic of minimalism is warmed up through the use of natural materials such as plywood which is either left unstained or is ebonized using a natural ink. These material choices transform his stark modernist designs into inviting pieces of furniture. Speaking of Machnik's work on occasion of his show at Pavilion in Chicago, gallerist Deborah Colman said:
"Allow your eyes to adjust, and you will see a full spectrum of color: charcoal, ebony, onyx, and ash, with scattered showers of ivory and gray. What was once a severe configuration of cold-blooded objects is now an expression chart, brimming with potential."
Lukas Machnik is an interior designer by trade. Having worked in the field for over a decade, he recognized a gap in the market for hyper-minimalist furniture. In response, starting in 2012, he designed a series of editioned chairs, benches and tables that became the Monument Collection.
Machnik's furniture designs embody reductionist aesthetics to such a degree that often all that is left is fundamental geometry. For example, in the piece above the chair form is reduced to three planes, perpendicular and adjacent to one another like X, Y and Z on a Cartesian coordinate plot. Their fundamental purity translates into their functional simplicity.
In Machnik's designs the traditionally cold aesthetic of minimalism is warmed up through the use of natural materials such as plywood which is either left unstained or is ebonized using a natural ink. These material choices transform his stark modernist designs into inviting pieces of furniture. Speaking of Machnik's work on occasion of his show at Pavilion in Chicago, gallerist Deborah Colman said:
"Allow your eyes to adjust, and you will see a full spectrum of color: charcoal, ebony, onyx, and ash, with scattered showers of ivory and gray. What was once a severe configuration of cold-blooded objects is now an expression chart, brimming with potential."