The miguel milá gres stool, designed by Miguel Milá for Expormim, now marks 60 years. Its looping frame shows how far a design can travel when it starts from a close understanding of material and form.
Lightness starts with the material
This stool’s lightness begins with rattan, according to Stylepark, which published the design’s anniversary profile. Craftspeople heat, bend and shape the fibres to create the flowing curves that define the frame.
Other furniture makers also let natural materials set the form, as in Bamboo Elegance: Marek Kounovský’s Handle Table Design, where bamboo’s structure drives the silhouette.
Each stage of making the rattan stool reveals how the material behaves. The final shape depends on the skill of the people who work it.
Milá’s approach to design
The same close link between material and form ran through Milá’s wider furniture design work. His objects rest on a clear understanding of function, construction and the natural properties of the materials he chose.
The result, as the profile describes it, is furniture that stays contemporary decades after it was made. The design is a case in point after six decades.
The miguel milá gres stool today
What the photographs show
The frame is pale and smooth.
Pencil studies
One drawing shows a tall stool with an elliptical seat and curved legs. A smaller sketch shows a shorter stool with tapered sides.
For another take on decades-old seating that still feels current, see Zenith’s Profondo Seating Revives 1970s Italian Design, which brings bold upholstery to a classic form.
The stool shows that a material’s limits can shape a design. Six decades on, the bent frame still does the work that ornament would otherwise need to do.
Source: stylepark.com
Frequently asked questions
Who designed the Miguel Milá Gres stool and for which company?
Miguel Milá designed the Gres stool for Expormim. The article says the stool now marks 60 years.
What material gives the Miguel Milá Gres stool its lightness?
According to the article, the stool’s lightness begins with rattan. Craftspeople heat, bend and shape the rattan fibres to create the flowing curves of the frame.
Why does the Gres stool’s frame have its curved, looping shape?
The frame’s curves come from bending rattan fibres, which craftspeople heat and shape by hand. The article says the final shape depends on the skill of the people who work the material.
Which publication published the anniversary profile of the Gres stool?
Stylepark published the design’s anniversary profile, according to the article.
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