yoav avinoam + adi tasa: olive

‘olive’ by yoav avinoam and adi tasa images by yigal pardo

israeli designers adi tasa and yoav avinoam have created ‘olive’. developed with the intention of building a piece of furniture in a manner that re-examines the bonds between upholstery and fabric, the chair is formed from a molded polyester-based textile which is heated and shaped. the seating object is actualized in such a way that the material itself becomes appreciated for its highly visual and tangible textural quality. still in its prototype phase, it is the first design of several multidisciplinary projects by avinoam and tasa. designboom spoke with the duo about working together on the piece and the research and development involved.

back view

db: how did the collaboration between the two of you begin? yoav: I was visiting an exhibition at shenkar college (ramat gan, tel aviv) and was fascinated by adi’s graduation project. I thought the process of a multidisciplinary project between a textile designer and a product designer could have some interesting results, so I contacted her and we sat down and discussed some ideas.

detailed view of ‘olive’ back

what were the starting points for the project? adi: the concept of a three dimensional fabric was already in development, explored through different kind of fabrics, but without a specific target. yoav: nirith nelson, the curator of sotheby’s ‘dream objects’ exhibition, contacted us and proposed that we design an piece that relates to the show. we turned to upholstery and started to think about this notion of ‘dream furniture’. adi: something you constantly want to touch and feel very comfortable in.

detailed view of ‘olive’ seat

can you discuss the form exploration and material research you conducted, and how you came to this final 3D textile design? adi: the process was similar to a lab research experimenting with different kinds of fabrics. while the technique of fixating the fabric is well known, the consistency, size and form of the ‘balls’ were the points  we had to define.

yoav: right after that we started to deal with the connection between the fabric and the upholstery and to find a way that could reduce the amount of polyurethane foam used in traditional upholstery.

‘olive’ fabric, seen from both the under and out sides

could you please explain the process of producing this type of surface? how does the textile hold these bulbous shapes – are they stuffed with batting just like typical upholstery?

yoav: the base fabric is molded and then steamed. after cooling down we insert pre-molded foam balls which are more stable and firm than batting. then we apply glue from the upholstery world to seal the fabric with a base layer of cotton.

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what are your visions moving forward with this upholstery concept – do you have other applications in mind? adi: we continue to develop the fabric looking into new ways and forms to expand this concept. we are designing more objects to add to the ‘olive’ family of products and looking for a production company to take on this project.

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