The Smooth Void – Maria Wolff Metternich

Smooth Void

lounger

A new context – Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck, Remagen. September 2020

This videowork has been developed in collaboration together with Vision_3 Productions. It presents the textile lounger the Smooth Void being set at the Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck, Remagen, Germany.

Designer: Maria Wolff Metternich
Production: Vision_3

The lounger aims to transform the role of textiles from embellishment to a piece of furniture. Its innovative use of fabric offers different ways of getting comfortable. In summer 2020 this prototype received a Red Dot Design Award, marked as “best of the best“ in the category Design Concept. This concept and its visuals had recently been registered at the EUIPO-The European Union Intellectual Property Office.

The innovative use of fabric offers a variety of ways of getting comfortable in both lying and sitting positions. The Smooth Void demonstrates the potential of knit as not only a cover or decorative element but also as upholstery. While textiles often serve as the ‘finishing touch’, the Smooth Void’s knits are fundamental to the comfort experience. Both object and body complement each other and create a singular vibrant expression of comfort.

A strong relationship between shape and body appears: the body is captured, enveloped, encased, enclosed. The body nestles and clings into the shape. The base frame of the lounger off ers comfort for the head and support for the back is given by the center padding.

The organic and minimalistic shape represents a specific aesthetic atmosphere, which is brought to life with color and design coherence. It resembles a scallop. There is a balance of artistic beauty and functional expression which reminds of The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli, as the shell exposes and captures the body. Around twenty layers of a cotton-lycra fabric tunnel are stretched over the base padding, consisting of spacer fabric. The result is a high level of tactility, which promotes physical and emotional comfort.

A comfort zone is like a border we draw around us, we feel captured and safe. Comfort is elastic in a material/physical way, as well as in emotions; comfort is subjective.

Clothing strongly supports our physical and emotional state and affects a coherent balance of ‘being’ when comfortable. Knit expresses a clear comfort in its flexibility and touch and offers additional stabilisation and fit.