Heart of glass: Soda from miniforms

Located on a small island, a stone’s throw from Venice, Murano glass workshops become a hellish furnace. No more so than when highly-skilled craftsmen are manufacturing big glass pieces such as the Soda coffee table. For this table, three people have to blow simultaneously in order to add the finishing touches to this, the latest glass product from Miniforms – the company established in the Veneto, a region well known for its furniture-making excellence.

The end-product of this complex operation is an iconic coffee table made from a single block of glass weighing 20kg. Even if this product is industrial in essence, it maintains a strong artistic aesthetic which exemplifies the company’s motto: ‘Making Craftsmanship Last’. Miniforms’ products are all handmade in Italy by trained artisans.

Each craftsman inherited his know-how from long family tradition. Machines assist them, but human hands and powerful lungs do the lion’s share of the work… ‘Most of the work is done by the craftsmen in Murano’, declares Yiannis Ghikas, the designer. ‘They have to carefully adjust a complex system of burners in order to keep the same temperature throughout the mold, which is essential to ensure a homogenous texture.’

Due to the Covid crisis, Ghikas had to work remotely from his Athens studio. ‘Initially, Mario Bardini – Creative Director at Miniforms – commissioned me to design a coffee table made entirely of glass. It was my very first project using this material, so I began by researching how other designers met the challenge. At this point, I realised glass was commonly utilised in the coffee table universe but never on its own: it was always combined with wood or metal. I quickly understood why; manufacturing such a big piece of furniture entirely from glass is a tricky challenge. But I began drawing, and then created the first 3D renderings.’

Long exchanges ensued with the company. When the Miniforms team presented the first design draft to the workshops, the craftsmen quickly said: ‘Yes, it’s tricky… but feasible!’ There were no big issues with the shape. The molds could be made. ‘I wanted my design to play with light and transparency’, says Ghikas.

‘If you look at the Soda table from a certain angle, you see darker parts because of the way the layers of glass overlap. On the other hand, I have no control over the glass texture. Due to the impossibility of travelling, I couldn’t be sure about the final aspect of the table; I had to accept that this would stem from the skill of the artisanal process.’

Actually, the mould is totally smooth, but the surface of the coffee table looks like it has been hammered. ‘Because of the Covid crisis, I haven’t been able to visit the Murano workshop, but we constantly exchanged pictures and videos to make the collection as perfect as we needed it to be. Graphic designers have all the tools they need on their computers. We, the designers, have to become intimate with the materials and processes that form part of every project. We’re taught by engineers, by craftsmen…’

Ghikas’ Soda coffee tables are available in two dimensions and two colours, ‘Amber’ and ‘Petrol Green’. For this project, Miniforms put aside its eagerness for bright colours, but not the fun. This glass table has a strong and iconic appeal, but it’s also adaptable: it perfectly fits both homes and public spaces.

‘Soda’s style reflects perfectly our brand’s DNA’, declares Raphael De Mas, from the Miniforms Creative Lab. ‘It's iconic, simple, colourful, and squarely funky!’ Miniforms loves to mix traditional elements of the past (like working with Murano glass) by inserting them into a contemporary environment. ‘We love to say that it’s okay to look at the past, we just don’t want to stare.’

© Architonic