fracture bench broken

Fracture sums up this project by Itay Ohaly quite well: a collection of broken-apart benches smashed down to a series of singular chairs that, seen in sequence, allude strongly to their original form. The tension of parts versus a whole is a common one in architecture, interior and furniture design but this takes the topic to much more visceral and literal places.

broken bench

Fractures, the designer states, are a part of nature that reflect the past of an object. We are used to seeing things smoothed out, flattened down and refined to the point where an original material form or nature is obfuscated. These furniture objects bring back a sense of the tactile, the literal, the real.

sculptural broken chair

Each object within each fractured furniture set hints at a part of its original – its location within a set of the same cardboard, plastic, plaster or wood material. At the same time, each is more original and unique itself than most pieces of furniture that are intended to be parts of sets but are not really derived from a single form or object.

broken concrete bench

Moreover, each of these sets tells a different story of its material origins. Plastic deforms in a certain way, wood breaks and splinters in another and concrete or plaster shatter and crack after their own particular fashion. More than just a series of artistic statements these works call into question our (our intentional and) frequent disregard for the most interesting properties of a given furniture-building material.

“Fractures have different forms that derive from the material structure and 
the type and strength of energy that is activated upon it. During the years, with the development of industrial processes, we “tamed” the 
material and took it away from its natural form.”

intentionally broken furniture

“Our eyes are accustomed to see flattened, polished and bright materials, 
as well as our sense of touch that examines the feel and quality of the surface.”

“This project is an exploration of the material characteristics in fracture. It presents the wild and unique aesthetics of each material and its interaction with intense energy. The ‘whole’ object is the starting point of each creation while the fracture brings it to its final shape.”