076 DECORATIVE & DESIGN / PROJECT


Right & below Maarten Baas’s concept for the Mendini Restaurant includes pieces inspired by his Clay Furniture series. Like the room’s green chairs, the pendant, standard lamp and wall-mounted fixtures are hand mouled to give them a unique, playful aesthetic. (Photography: © Marten de Leeuw)


Left & above Studio Job’s private function room takes its inspiration from 19th century private members clubs. Fine craftsmanship is used to give traditional design elements an ironic twist, including the Murino glasswork that went into creating the rooms many breast-shaped light fittings (Photography: © Robert Kot)


green and blue scheme. The resultant space offers a far more elegant and engaging experience than one expects from a museum research room.


MENDINI RESTAURANT - Maarten Baas Dutch designer Maarten Baas (www.maartenbaas.com) achieved world renown with his Smoke series - traditional pieces that had been partially burnt and then sealed with an epoxy resin coating. In 2004, the Groninger Museum handed over a suite of furniture from its collec- tion for Baas to transform as part of his Where there’s smoke exhibition and with the recent redesign they went one bet- ter by offering him an entire restaurant to transform. This time, Baas left the blowtorch to one side, instead basing his concept on his


2006 Clay Furniture series. Red pendant, wall-mounted and standard lamp fixtures provide the room’s main theme. All are modelled by hand to form a collection of unique objects, each with subtle differ- ences in colour because of variations in the pigments used. The playfully irregular char- acter of Clay furniture combines with the room’s muted tones and simple furniture to produce a spacious, isle of calm that ably functions in its twin roles of daytime café and smart evening restaurant.


JOB LOUNGE – Studio Job Job Smeets and Nynke Tynagel - the cre- ative duo behind Studio Job (www.studiojob.nl) - were inspired by 19th- century private members clubs to create their ironic design for the museum’s private function room.


Their clever juxtaposition of quality crafts- manship with an undercurrent of spurious taste gives the unsettling impression of being transported through the looking glass. Harlequin stained glass windows feature industrial drilling rigs; beautiful linen table- cloths are embroidered with prison camp iconography; classical palace chairs are made of plastic; and the window drapes are actually flat, printed-board cutouts. Famous Venetian Murano glass manufac- turer, Venini, were given the designs to produce special wall and ceiling lights in the shape of female breasts. These are used extensively throughout the room - another of the visual punches that Studio Job has used to created their gesammtkunstwerk: a dreamlike landscape that mixes fantasy and functionality. www.groningermuseum.nl


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