The ties that bind: BoConcept x BIG

The new furniture collection, Nawabari, is the manifestation of a shared vision. At the outset of the creative collaboration between furniture designers BoConcept and architecture office BIG, both parties sat down to each share their insights and understandings of what today’s consumers need and how to create optimal social and living spaces. 

Head of BIG Products, Jakob Lange, along with the design teams, were driven by the aim of finding a new way of expressing furniture. ‘This could somehow seem like an impossible task yet we stumbled upon this idea of taking a rope and tying it around a sponge and then studying what kind of forms it creates,’ explains Lange about their inspiration from the Japanese art form of binding with ropes to forge close bonds. ‘When we translated this idea into a three-dimensional object, we got some very interesting organic shapes and sculptures out of it, which ended up becoming the core of this furniture family.’

The Nawabari furniture collection comprises two sofa sizes, an armchair, two coffee tables and two pouffe sizes. In close collaboration with BoConcept, BIG has developed a set of sculptural shapes which add a sense of playfulness to the otherwise more classic and elegant BoConcept style. ‘A design like Nawabari is an extraordinary surprise for our customers who know BoConcept for timeless style, colour and unwavering quality. This design brings forth a cool and casual look which is more outspoken in its expression,’ says Claus Ditlev Jensen, Collection and Visuals Director at BoConcept.    

Besides the creative formats, essential considerations regarding the design’s environmental impact have been included, making sure that the product responds to today’s demands in its entirety. The sofas, armchair and pouffes are upholstered in Gabriel's wool-effect Blend Fabric, a fabric carrying the EU ECOlabel and Standard 100 by OEKO-TEX ®. With this type of upholstery, Nawabari has obtained the Greenguard certification which ensures products have low-emitting chemicals and low impact on indoor air quality. 

‘With Nawabari I think we’ve managed to create a family of furniture which formally expresses the essence of a very simple idea, tying with ropes,’ says Lange – a fitting metaphor also for the creation of this broader bond between two Danish icons.

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