Kartell - Chair Smart Wood - Black - Moulded wood plywood - Designer Philippe Starck; Kartell Chair Black Wood. Dimensions: L 51 x D 55.5 cm x H 83 cm - Seat: H 43.5 cm. The poetry of wooden embraces technology… Kartell creates an event by including wooden in its catalogue for the first time in its history! With the Smart Wood collection, Kartell and Philippe Starck rise to a new challenge: working wooden with the same fluidity as composite materials to give it a new look, full of finesse and curves. With its unique moulded wooden shell, the Smart Wood collection combines timeless elegance, contemporary shapes and perfect finishes. The generous curves and dimensions of the shell provide excellent seating comfort. The major figures Ray and Charles Eames were the first to experiment with moulding plywooden into complex shapes. More than 50 years later, technological advances have allowed Kartell to offer even more with less. This is the Smart Wood collection. Philippe Starck explains: I wanted to create wooden seats using just a minimum of material. Twenty years ago, you could bend wooden two centimetres, then five, six, and so on. I wanted to bend it thirty-five centimetres.Each year, I gained another centimetre! To launch the Smart Wood range, it was necessary to invent a technology that did not exist. This feat was made possible thanks to a unique patented 3D technology that produces a wooden curvature of extreme proportions. The moulded wooden adopts the incredible sinuous lines with enveloping curves, like an embrace that offers total comfort. To reduce the cutting down of trees, the shell uses very little material: just wooden residues. It's made from ash nano-shavings glued in nano-layers which are then laminated. Then, using machines that cut the wooden in line, the wooden takes on the appearance of a kind of fabric that can be deformed. For 10 to 15 minutes, the wood, now soft as silk, can be moulded. As it dries, it stiffens and returns to the texture of wood.
