‘gu’ is ma yansong’s contemporary interpretation of the traditional wooden armchair

after drawing inspiration from skeletal structures, connective joints, and other design tissues, MAD architects’ founder and director, ma yansong, named his contemporary armchair for sawaya & moroni: ‘gu.’ each surface of the chair — presented at milan design week 2018 — cements itself with the others organically, as if it were a living organism, frozen mid-metamorphosis. note: the translation of gu is bones.

all images courtesy of MAD architects

the chair’s heavy wood grain points hard in certain directions, then softens seamlessly into smooth curves. at silhouette, the chair may look more like a funky, futuristic sculpture, or an undulating ode to organs. but according to ma yansong, the chair for sawaya & moroni was simply meant to play with users’ preconceptions of shapes and lines, by exploring materiality with human contours. 

project info:

location: via alessandro manzoni, 11, milan
design team: ma yansong, dang qun, yosuke hayano, andrea d’antrassi, casey kell, matthew pugh