zhi and kou cement furnishings by bentu design

zhi and kou cement furnishings by bentu design
all images courtesy of bentu design

a single frame is restriction of space and freedom. meanwhile, two frames are combination. but three frames, like children’s toy bricks, creative and changeable, can ignite imagination. this is the philosophy that has led bentu design to construct ‘zhi and kou,’ a pair of furnishings that allow users to compose shelves, tables, and seating arrangements. the names find their origins in the fact that their shapes reflect characters seen the chinese phonetic system, pinyin, as  ‘zhi’ and  ‘kou’ are translated into 只 and 口. correspondingly, each piece uses a cement and recycled waste mixture to form an extruded representation of the letters. this results in a sold square with chamfered edges that has been hollowed out to self-sufficiently carry its own weight along with any items users may want to store away. additional stability is granted by four legs that attach through the use of hex bolts and washers to lift the cube off of the ground in order to articulate the strokes of ‘zhi.’ the supports are available in red, blue, yellow, and black to contrast the rest of the materiality.

‘zhi’ side table

cement, recycled waste, a metal construct the form

the furnishings look like their chinese name: 只

‘kou’

the concrete appears as extruded squares

the chamfered edges create variations

‘zhi’ and ‘kou’ can be freely combined

the hollow void can be used to put books or decorations

people can easily assemble a large bookcase

detail of the cement texture

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