Windworks Furniture by Merel Karhof
Updated: Jan 28, 2020
Windworks is a collection of upholstered furniture pieces, of which the wood, upholstery, dyeing and knitting of the yarn are all made with a free and inexhaustible energy source; the wi
To establish the Windworks furniture collection, the studio initiated a collaboration between two historic windmills from the Zaanse Schans (NL) and the Wind Knitting Factory. The Zaanse Schans is an area located on the river ‘Zaan’ in the province of Noord Holland and is home to a collection of well-preserved historic windmills. Each one of these produces a different kind of raw material. There is a color mill called ‘De Kat’ (the Cat), which has been fitted out to grind coloring materials, as well as a sawmill called ‘Het Jonge Schaap’ (the Young Sheep), that saws planks from trees to old Dutch measurements.
For the occasion of this collaboration, the studio designed a series of furniture pieces. The wood is sawn by the wind; the yarn is dyed with natural dyes, grounded by the color mill. After the dyeing process, the ‘Wind Knitting Factory’ knits the yarns, and with each harvest, the wood structures are upholstered.
Windworks shows a production triptych between three windmills and it makes visible what can be produced with wind power. It also shows how windmills working together can become a complete holistic industry.
