industrial design meets sci-fi in beomseok chae’s sculptural furniture series

the next generation of furniture design

Seoul-based designer Beomseok Chae conceives the next generation of furniture design with his ‘POST – COLLAPSE’ series of functional artworks. Melding industrial design aesthetics with sci-fi imagery, the project imagines a near-future world in which our current forms of furniture have collapsed.

Instead, from this futuristic scenario emerge four new sculptural furniture objects and three small table accessories, with purpose extending beyond use as household appliances. A floor lamp, a stool, and two storage units made from stainless steel, acrylic and polycarbonate, designed with an intricate yet robust minimalism, compose the new collection of furniture art of the future.

‘POST-COLLAPSE’ Functional Artwork series | all images courtesy Beomseok Chae

beomseok chae fuses industrial and sci-fi aesthetics

The key concept of ‘POST-COLLAPSE’ centers on the word ‘POST –’. Beomseok Chae looks to a moment in the future where a new language of furniture design replaces what we know now after it is destroyed in a sci-fi phenomenon. The designer metasaturates this imagined collapse of contemporary forms into furniture artworks integrated with forms and motifs depicted in sci-fi literature movies and novels. A storage module, a stool, a standing light, and a clothes hanger unit comprise the main collection, emitting their presence as ‘landmarks’ in living spaces.

The yA-18 STOOL is a steel structure with a rounded seat composed of 18 acrylic squares. The object ‘represents existence like a sculpture in living space, in which the carved top is arranged like a reflective plate of a radar to form a vanishing point’, notes Chae. This piece is complemented by a small variable Multi-Tray with a similar design language, which can either be rolled into a round shape using wire, or spread out and used flat.

POST-COLLAPSE small table objects

A rocket-esque adjustable floor lamp, zS-6 STANDING LIGHT is composed of six panels designed from mechanical sources used in the high-tech and space industry. Leaking through the lamp’s translucent panels, soft white light ‘envelopes the cold near-future.’ With a similar form, Chae creates the small Sharp Pencil Pot, alluding to the shape of rocket fuel cylinders.

Finally, Beomseok Chae designs two distinct storage units which showcase their contained objects exhibition-like displays. The minimalist xH-3 STORAGE module is comprised of three stainless steel cubes suspended from a tubular frame with wires. Each hovering cube becomes a medium of ‘exhibition’, spotlighting its contents. Likewise, the yD-4 HANGER displays pieces of clothing as though they were artefacts on display. Composed of overlapping rectangular frames, the hanger contains tension wires which draw attention to the clothes within as well as emphasizing the sleek outer exhibition frame. 

yA-18 STOOL

stainless steel and acrylic panels compose yA-18 STOOL

zS-6 STANDING LIGHT

the designer fuses industrial design with sci-fi aesthetics

xH-3 STORAGE takes shape as an exhibition display

yD-4 HANGER

sleek industrial details of yD-4 HANGER

project info:

name: ‘POST-COLLAPSE’ 
designer: Beomseok Chae

designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: ravail khan | designboom