Maarten Baas hallelujah

Maarten Baas is a furniture artist and designer and by far my favorite on functional peices of art. His "Hey... chair... be a bookshelf" is a must own, it's something truely modern that can be passed down to future generations.

"The battered white Mercedes van turns off the highway and enters a small, shabby industrial estate outside the small southern Dutch town of Eindhoven. A grand piano stands on waste ground in front of a lock-up unit. A blowtorch and a jerry-can of petrol lie ready.
Maarten Baas jumps down from the driver’s seat of the van while we pile out of the passenger door and gather round the piano. Its keys, strings and hammers have been removed and it is ready for smoking.
Baas is just 26 years old and only graduated from the Design Academy Eindhoven two years ago, but already his “Smoke” project has brought him worldwide attention, including a solo show at Moss, New York’s most influential design showroom, and a production deal with leading Dutch manufacturer Moooi.
Technically, Smoke is very simple: Baas takes existing wooden objects, scorches them with a blowtorch, impregnates and seals the charred surfaces with epoxy and then resells them through galleries (the Mint gallery in London lists one of his carver chairs at £2,300). " Marcus Fairs for Icon Magazine.

"Since it's still a young company and the projects are very different, it's hard todefine how a "normal" year looks. There are special requests, new experiments, exhibitions, projects on location and extending the standard collection.Bas, Maarten & the crew hope that the client enjoys the product as much as they like to make it... " http://www.maartenbaas.com/