OBITOVANA 5019: A futuristic collaboration

OBITOVANA 5019:

A futuristic collaboration of

A workshop of Ukrainian design and architecture MAKHNO STUDIO in collaboration with a couture design studio Kofta has created a collection of furniture and accessories OBITOVANA 5019. This project has become their eco-manifesto and contemplation about what our future can be like.

furniture design art Conception Collaboration

Published in Interior+Design • India Art n Design • STYLEINSIDER • Cases

Today is the year of 5019.

Today a new land has appeared.

The rave of the herb colors blended with the gradients of mint-tarragon trees against the pinkish sand. A life-giving flood of the daylight and pure hearts has spilled over a tired planet.

OBITOVANA 5019 is a space without walls and ceilings, without fences and borders. Here there are no rules and obligations. Everyone is familiar with each other — there are no strangers under the same sky. The whole world here is home.

The words “war”, “mobile phone”, “internet” have become archaisms, they are no longer remembered. If you talk — then face to face only, if you eat — then together and slowly. To fight — but for what? People are fine with what they already have. Here, a human starts anew shaping another reality out from harmony and freedom, while the world nurtures a pure-to-the-bones human — the real one.

OBITOVANA 5019 collection is an effort to tell the present its future. It is the world that we have started to create today.

“Collaboration with Kofta is an attempt to taste the postfuturism. We are telling the story about the mode of life after the future. OBITOVANA 5019 is our dream to be part of building the world we want to have, not the one we are predicted”, — shares Serghii Makhno, the architect and founder of MAKHNO STUDIO.

The collection consists of a table without a tabletop, a cold floor lamp and a warm one, a sofa-shell, a carpet-puzzle, and two flourishing bags-flowers. Every item is made in a single copy only. And every item has its own story. The names of the products are the names of butterflies that have gone extinct, rivers that have dried away, glaciers that have melted, islands that are drowning, and flowers that will never bloom again. In a new world, they will be alive again.

"Changes dictate their rules. Today, nobody follows the function anymore. It has become an unconditional necessity. Today, people follow aesthetics — the main driver for change. It is tomorrow already when the things around will become the harmony a modern human lacks. Tomorrow there will be no future, but us — new ones, filled with light, surrounded by a perfectly balanced space”, — tells Konstantin Kofta, the chief designer of futuristic leather manufacture.

LINNAEA

petal bag | status: сlose to extinction

A flower on the Red Book of Ukraine. The change of the soil composition and peat reclamation in Ukraine led to the population destruction and extinction of the habitus.

LINNAEA is a four-petal bag. Each petal is a unit to keep something vital. One is for the seeds and tree sprouts, another one is for the sunbeams, the third one is for spicy morning dews, and the last one is for air. The whole life is just at hand.

Dimensions: 400x400x70 mm | 15.7"x15.7"x2.7"

Materials: stable natural rubber

Features: clutch bag transforming into a shoulder bag and vice versa. Has neither up nor down, is

360° viewed. Every petal of four uncloses with zipper individually.

CORAL REEF

table | status: сlose to extinction

Warmer oceans, overfishing, pollution, and gradually acidifying waters have destroyed more than a third of the world’s shallow tropical coral reefs. More than 90 percent of the world’s near-surface coral habitat could be gone in the next 30 years.

Table CORAL REEF repeats the form and the color of the actual oceanic coral reef. The white metal twigs hold scarlet ceramic plates that replace the tabletop. Because you don’t need more, just your plate and people around. CORAL REEF is a table to forget about the mobile phone, cosmetic case, or a purse. Free yourself of all the extras.

Dimensions: 980x1900x420 mm | 38.6"x74.8"x16.5"

Materials: metal, ceramic

Features: intended for physical and spiritual food. Removable ceramic cups are to be filled with drinks, fruits, soups, and long conversations. Can be placed in various orders, creating at least 18 unique surface images.

TITAN

floor-lamp | status: сlose to extinction

Titan Arum is the world’s biggest flower. Destruction of the rainforests, over-collecting from the wild and lack of natural pollinators are responsible for the explicit decline in the number of Titan Arum in the wild.

A lamp TITAN is a flower that never fades. It can grow right from the floor or a wall. A twisting rod is wrapped with a thin rose fabric to protect the beam of light inside. Like hope, like a chance to survive.

Dimensions: 1862x360x640 mm | 73.3"x14.1"x25.2"

Materials: metal, ceramic, textile

Features: cocoon can be moved from your chest towards your head and to the sky. The opening lid of the flower allows you to let in more light, a lot of light. In a closed position, it will provoke the intimate orange-red light.

ARNO

bag-vase | status: vulnerable

The Arno is the most important river in central Italy after the Tiber. And one of the most polluted ones. It can easily go from almost dry to near flood in a few days. Now the river is almost dried out.

The bag ARNO is a river made from natural rubber. A life-giving accessory allows keeping fresh flowers in the water while functioning as an ordinary take-and-carry device. From now on, you can take a river with your favorite cherry twig anywhere. From now on, you will blossom the world.

Dimensions: 440x350x140 mm | 15.7"x15.7"x5.5"

Materials: stable natural rubber

Features: made of stable natural rubber, it looks hard but feels mild. On the matte soft surface, there is a tube to be filled with water. Intended to keep flowers safe and sound.

FUJI

carpet | status: vulnerable

Over the last few years, severe tropical storms have caused flash flooding across the islands and devastation to both homes and farmland. Since 1993, Fiji has recorded a six-millimeter increase in its sea-level each year, much more than the global average.

Modular carpet FUJI is a pure oh wow. It consists of different parts that can be combined in different ways. The texture of the carpet is a continuation of the outdoors reimagined with the help of diverse materials, colors, and techniques. Touch it — and you will feel the velvet sand-dunes, take a step forward — and the ocean waves will hug your feet, lie down on it — and you will feel the bushy mountains tickling your neck. FUJI carpet is freedom.

Dimensions: 820x1200 mm | 32.3"x47.2"

Materials: textile

Features: colors are the subject to discuss and admire. Take the parts you need. Combine them as you want.

Puzzle and unpuzzle. You have 5 options and the whole life.

X-BLUE

sofa | status: extinct

Xerces blue butterfly was native to the coastal dunes of San Francisco before being driven to extinction by loss of habitat due to urbanization. It was the first North American butterfly to become extinct as the result of human action.

Sofa X-BLUE is a heartwarming offer to take a rest right on the turquoise butterfly shell. It will take you to the softness you’ve never experienced before. The wings are made from leather — to be strong enough for the winds. The form provokes sweet dreams only. Make sure to try it before it flies away.

Dimensions: 860x2000x910 mm | 33.8"x78.7"x35.8"

Materials: wood, textile

Features: from our fictional language, the sofa translates as a nap, napping, to take a nap. You can lie, semi-lie, sit, semi-sit, rest without semi. The wings-ears-petals will save you from noise and anxiety.

OK

floor-lamp | status: extinct

Okjökull, known as Ok, is the first Icelandic glacier to fall victim to climate change. All the other glaciers will gradually melt away in the next 200 years.

A floor-lamp OK is a sunset inside the iceberg. It is two meters high and two meters at width, and soon it will become the sea. The light inside the ice will make it melt, and the cold white form will bend in the wave curls. OK is a symbol of the era end, a hint at the new beginning people need to encounter.

Dimensions: 720x1780x2120 mm | 28.3"x70"x83.5"

Materials: metal, textile

Features: its ambitious size wants you to use it as a screen too. Watch the shadows of the light. Watch out — you can be boldly brightened. Wind, even the lightest one, causes the translucent fabric to treble = get alive.

Authors

behind the scene

MAKHNO STUDIO is a workshop of contemporary Ukrainian design and architecture that during 16 years of work has completed nearly 600 projects in 17 countries. The company works in three directions: interior design, architecture, and product design. Also, it has its own ceramic production. The studio promotes the style of “Ukrainian contemporary” that combines minimalism, art, Ukrainian traditions, and the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi.

Kofta is an independent couture studio specializing in the art of leathercraft using 3-D futuristic technologies. As a result, there are accessories created at the intersection of art and applied science, familiar and imaginary at the same time. Since 2010, the studio has been creating unique projects that get numerous awards at the international competitions of art and fashion.