As this season’s Maison et Objet Designer of the Year, Japanese design firm Nendo will be installing a chocolate lounge for visitors to explore during the fair. From January 23-27, visitors to Maison et Objet can relax in the Chocolatexture Lounge and sample nine specialty chocolates created specifically for the occasion.
Defined by 2000 aluminum pipes painted in a gradation of chocolate browns, this “rippling large molten chocolate wave,” will house a collection of Nendo-designed seating for companies including Cappellini, Desalto, Emeco, Glas Italia, Moroso and Offecct, that have been custom-colored to a chocolate-y hue. As the designers told Dezeen, “The Chocolatexture Lounge is neither a cafe, nor an exhibition, nor an installation, but a place to experience and enjoy Nendo through the five senses.”
Not ones to tease, Nendo has also designed and produced 400 sets of the Chocolatexture specialty candies will be sold and sampled on site. Unlike a Whitman’s Sampler, Nendo’s chocolate creations taste different because of their bite-sized architecture. Each of the 9 chocolates measure 26x26x26mm cubed and feature an assortment of textural surfaces, hollowed interiors, points and divots.
Each chocolate is named from a Japanese expression used to describe texture.
1. “tubu-tubu” Chunks of smaller chocolate drops.
2. “sube-sube” Smooth edges and corners.
3. “zara-zara” Granular like a file.
4. “toge-toge” Sharp pointed tips.
5. “goro-goro” Fourteen connected small cubes.
6. “fuwa-fuwa” Soft and airy with many tiny holes.
7. “poki-poki” A cube frame made of chocolate sticks.
8. “suka-suka” A hollow cube with thin walls.
9. “zaku-zaku” Alternately placed thin chocolate rods forming a cube.
Visit the Chocolatexture Lounge in Maison et Objet, Paris. January 23-27, Hall 8, Stand F1-G2.
H/T dezeen
