Eye Candy of the Week

Product: Chaise Lounge
Dimensions: HxWxD: appr. 100x159x71 cm
Material: Burnt furniture, finished off with epoxy, leather upholstery
Colour: Black
Designer: Marteen Baas

Distributor: Moooi
Locally Available at: Only Human
Yummy Factor: En Flambée !

Maarten Baas (born 19 February 1978, Arnsberg, Germany) is a very young but yet talented Dutch designer.

His design Smoke was adopted in the collection of Dutch label MOOOI, of Marcel Wanders. Thanks to successful presentations in Milan, London and Paris Smoke became known world-wide. Smoke furniture was bought by museums and collectors such as Lidewij Edelkoort and Philippe Starck.

The Smoke chandelier was part of the exhibition "Brilliant" of the Victoria & Albert museum in London.

In May 2004 a speechmaking solo-exhibition was opened with New York gallerist Murray Moss. "Where There’s Smoke" showed 25 pieces of furniture, all burned and finished of with transparent epoxy. Amongst others there were charcoaled classical designs of Gaudi, Eames, Rietveld, Sottsass and the Campana Brothers.

For the new collection of the Groninger Museum, Maarten worked on some furniture from the old collection of the museum. These were shown during the exhibition "Nocturnal Emissions" and purchased by the museum.

Also the Dutch Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam exhibited 2 of his Smoke-pieces in 2005 in an exhibition about pieces to be purchased by the Stedelijk Museum.

His pieces are all unique and handmade, though produced in series, mostly signed and numbered by Maarten Baas. Maarten is searching for the boundaries of design, without leaning on the regular "do's and don'ts". This way of working became even more clear at the Salone del Mobile in Milan 2005, where he showed his new pieces. "Treasure", "Hey, chair, be a bookshelf!" and "Flatpack Furniture" became a great succes.

In 2005 he also started his collaboration with Bas den Herder, who became responsible for the production of all pieces. The foundation of studio Baas & den Herder made it possible to produce Maartens unique pieces on a larger scale, but yet all hand made in Holland. Assignments came from hotels, restaurants, galleries and museums all over the world.

- Wikipedia -