Michael Anastassiades: one of the most romantic furniture designer
By: Eva Inès
Tags: Furniture Designer, Michael Anastassiades, Furniture Design, Designer, Furniture

Michael Anastassiades is a designer born in Cyprus and based in London. His furniture design often draws inspiration from the natural environment, always with a strong artistic quality, the work is pure and abstract, good at arousing the resonance of users in the subtleties, and creating tension between rigorous and interesting.

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Michael Anastassiades studied civil engineering at Imperial College, then industrial design at the Royal College of Art, and founded his own studio of the same name in 1994. As a designer, he has collaborated with brands such as FLOS, B&B Italia, Herman Miller, Cassina, etc. These products often have a sense of commercial fashion, but at the same time, as an independent studio, he continues to move closer to art collections. Personal brand creation.

Between artists and designers, Michael Anastassiades is more like a born romantic philosopher. Through many of his works, one can feel the designer’s personal emotion and slow poetry soaked in it.

Custom combination according to space-tribute to Calder’s “dynamic sculpture”

When designing for a brand, Michael Anastassiades often gives users freedom, which is very different from the common serious and rigid designers who like to guide users.

In the “String Light” created for Flos in 2013, a small chandelier is suspended on a slender cable. The user can act as a “curator” by himself, recombine it, and create a creation that belongs only to the needs of the space. Own minimalist lamps.

Based on the black color scheme this year, FLOS has introduced two new colors for the series: blue and white.

There is also “IC Lights”, which was inspired by a group of spheres rotating around the juggler’s body after Michael Anastassiades watched a juggling: he wanted to capture the pellets solidified on the juggler Moments on the edges of arms and fingers.

The “Arrangements” created in 2017 is a modular system of geometric light elements that can be combined in different ways to create multiple combinations into a single chandelier. Therefore, the choice of “IC lights” is extremely free, large or small, table lamps, wall lamps, floor lamps, and chandeliers-after all, the juggling ball can fall anywhere.

Each unit is easily attached to the unit above and integrated into a part of the light-emitting chain.

The source of agility in these products can be further traced from the personal brand works of Michael Anastassiades.

The 2008 “Mobile Chandelier” is made of frosted black brass rods and blown glass bulbs, with metal half shells or discs to balance the weight. It is a hand-made precision masterpiece with precisely positioned filigree structure The game is played under the action of gravity and static force.

Whether it is “Dynamic Chandelier” or various designs with a sense of space, the inspiration is obviously drawn from the concept of Alexander Calder’s work. Calder is an American modernist master who was appreciated by Duchamp, and he paid special attention to the composition of his sculptures with a sense of balance.

He will hang objects of various shapes and colors, and use air flow to drive art installations, and realize the rotation and swing of sculptures in the air without mechanical driving. Indeed, many of Calder’s works are called “Mobile”-”Red Mobile” and “Black Mobile with Hole”.

Cyprus, the home of rocks-a fascination with natural materials

In Cyprus, the hills are undulating and the climate is dry and hot all year round. If you are driving on the highway of the island, you can see the eyes full of earthy yellow, and the low bushes are dotted with hills like a desert. Cyprus is also the home of pottery in the Mediterranean. The unearthed pottery can be traced back to the Neolithic Age, and especially in the Bronze Age that began in 3200 BC, imaginative two-color pottery was created here, and the craftsmanship is unmatched.

Michael Anastassiades is a man who embraces strange nature. He collects stones from his urine, looking for “the perfect sphere in nature” in the stones. He once said, “Observing nature is very important to my creation.” Perhaps it is the obsession with rocks that makes Anastassiades particularly interested in Chinese culture.

He mentioned that when Mi Fugang, a poet and politician in the Northern Song Dynasty, was appointed governor of Wuwei Prefecture, he did not pay tribute to the owner when he entered the mansion for the first time. Instead, he turned and bowed to a very special-looking stone in the garden. Worship it in attire”.

The designer believes that the oxidation process will only increase the luster of the object, making it more beautiful over time. In terms of materials, the traces left by time are also the elements that make it unique.

A small exhibition held at NIMAC, Nicosia in March 2019

Perhaps influenced by this story, when he was the art director of a marble company in Versilia in 2013, he also saw a beautiful marble slab leaning against the wall of the warehouse. He immediately bought the slab and arranged to ship it to At home in London.

In terms of materials, Michael Anastassiades’ design philosophy is to retain the inherent characteristics of the materials he uses. All products made by the studio are handmade without any protective paint.

Michael Anastassiades Studio

For example, the mirror material used in “Beauty Mirror” created in 2010 is very unusual-gold-plated and nickel-plated stainless steel-it will form a kind of luster itself, if it is not polished, it will not last forever twinkling.

“The Onyx Light” is carved from a single piece of onyx, and its transparency and texture are carefully selected. Each individual onyx will only produce a batch of about 20 works, so each batch has a similar character and color.

The Meditation of a Yoga Instructor-Embrace Consummation

In addition to the designer, another identity of Michael Anastassiades is a yoga practitioner for more than 20 years. Following a yoga master like K. Pattabhi Jois, using meditation to sharpen his body and mind is part of his life, and he himself is also an Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga teacher.

Michael Anastassiades “has always been open to alternative practices.” He recalled that when he was studying at the Royal College of Art, he felt that he was out of place in mainstream product design. Therefore, Michael Anastassiades discovered yoga and began to immerse himself in intense meditation practice. “I am not interested in rapid success, but solid work, conscious development and evolution,” he said.

The most perfect geometric forms: circles and balls, appear repeatedly in his works. In Indian Sanskrit, the symmetrical mandala symbolizes “circle, arc, ball”, represents meditation, relaxation and concentration, and is a symbol of healing, wholeness and unity. Therefore, 2006’s “Ball Vase” (Ball Vase) is a perfect sphere, the whole body polished design can reflect the entire family’s private space on the sphere.

Also full of Zen, is the earthy red “Composition” series, which is made up of stacks of basic geometric shapes, creating a balanced combination that is like a yoga posture with a bottom-heavy head. Two cylindrical lamp legs protruded from its balance disc, and the light softly and slowly flowed down, and the solid sphere was connected to the floor.

In design creation, Michael Anastassiades not only integrates natural forms, ancient craftsmanship of Cyprus, and modernist art, but also incorporates very personal memories, art and daily life, thus transforming and elevating several rich and diverse art histories into forms. And structure of the eternal vocabulary.

The heavy material gives the material an atmosphere of “foundation” and “inner tranquility”-making the furniture design slowly achieve harmony, unity and perfection with nature and space.

The story about Michael Anastassiades has been deeply integrated into the DNA of his works, and I look forward to your meeting and understanding of them. More lighting works designed by Michael Anastassiades are available for on-site viewing and booking in the lighting area of ​​the Cabana shop.