Hunn Wai - Wood X Plastic shelf

As the confrontational title suggests, sheets of smoke-coloured acrylic are impaled by beech poles to construct a shelf.

However this simplicity is achieved by a meticulous technique of programming the components to fit.

First a small hole is made in the acrylic sheet and is heated for an exact duration. The wooden pole is then pushed through sheet by sheet. When the plastic cools down, it contracts around the pole to create a vice-like grip. This is repeated, resulting in a strong and stable structure.

Therefore this product is about bringing joinery back into the foreground, where the honesty and technique of process makes the Design.

About the Designer

Hunn Wai (1980) has just graduated from the IM Masters programme of the renowned Design Academy Eindhoven, under the direction of DROOG Design co-founder Gijs Bakker.

He also received the inaugural DesignSingapore Council’s Overseas Scholarship to study at the Academy.

Hunn has also exhibited twice (2004, 2006) at the Tokyo Design Week, under sponsorship and aid from DesignSingapore and ANT Design. Products developed for those events are currently being developed for production under the ANT label.

His “Paul Smith Pingpong Table” was featured in the publication of leading London-based trends-forecasting agency The Future Laboratory.

Hunn is interested in the possibilities and stories created from colliding/joining/fusing of samples taken from all facets of contemporary culture we live in.He believes in hands-on craft-like experimentation as well as modern techniques garnered from his Industrial Design background; after all they are just tools and processes for pushing things to the next level.

He lives by the Singlish motto: “Scared Don’t Do, Do Don’t Scared.”.

Hunn can be contacted by email: info@hunnwai.com and his website: www.hunnwai.com

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