Dutch-Belgian design duo Studio Job has created a number of opulent furniture items inspired, quite literally, by some of the most famous buildings in the world. The intricate cast-iron ornamentation of the Eiffel Tower is displayed through a lamp, and the Taj Majal is turned upside-down to become a gold-spangled end-table. In all, the pieces approximate the luxuriousness of the original buildings, but also subvert them a way that makes the luxurious details gloomier. What's more, the craftsmanship is so impressive that the concept doesn't even feel gimmicky.
Modeled after the medieval Chartres Cathedral in France, Studio Job's "Chartres" cabinet has a flamboyant gold leaf front, but in the back two spiky steeples, made from blackened bronze, jut out horizontally. The cabinet's sides depict the church's entrance and its ornate flying buttresses. It's beautiful, but also somewhat disconcerting.
"Consciously and carefully, we are positioning decorative arts in the twenty-first century. Is that design? Whatever. Is that art? Whatever," studio founder Job Smeets wrote on his gallery's website. More photos, below.
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· Studio Job [Official site]
· Carpenters Workshop Gallery [Official site]
· Carpenters Workshop Tours Studio Job's Landmark Pieces at Design Miami [Design Boom]
· All Furniture posts [Curbed National]
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