Tjep creates Bronze Age furniture in opposition to 3D printing
This skeletal furniture by Dutch design studio Tjep. is made from bronze in an effort to create a collection of objects "totally opposite to the technology-driven trends" in design (+ movie).
![Tjep. presents Bronze Age at Prague Designblok](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/10/Tjep_presents_Bronze_Age_at_Prague_Designblok_2014_dezeen_468_1.jpg)
Led by studio founder Frank Tjepkema, Tjep. designed a series of spindly hand-crafted furniture pieces in bronze; "the material that represents the dawn of civilisation".
![Tjep. presents Bronze Age at Prague Designblok](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/10/Tjep_presents_Bronze_Age_at_Prague_Designblok_2014_dezeen_sq.jpg)
"For this project I wanted to create something totally opposite to the technology-driven trends based on the emergence of new digital tools such as 3D printing," said Tjepkema.
![Tjep. presents Bronze Age at Prague Designblok](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/10/Tjep_presents_Bronze_Age_at_Prague_Designblok_2014_dezeen_468_6.jpg)
"I like the idea that bronze is precious and is therefore implicitly sustainable, it is either preserved or remelted but never discarded, who knows maybe these pieces contain a couple of remelted ancient bronze swords!"
![Tjep. presents Bronze Age at Prague Designblok](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/10/Tjep_presents_Bronze_Age_at_Prague_Designblok_2014_dezeen_468_5.jpg)
The Bronze Age collection follows on from the studio's 2011 Recession Chair – a mass-produced Ikea chair reduced in part to a skeletal shape to evoke the receding state of the global economy.
![Tjep. presents Bronze Age at Prague Designblok](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/10/Tjep_presents_Bronze_Age_at_Prague_Designblok_2014_dezeen_468_4.jpg)
Tjep. created a new version of this chair in bronze, with the original form in the patinated green condition of the material and the pared back section in its shiny metallic state.
![Tjep. presents Bronze Age at Prague Designblok](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/10/Tjep_presents_Bronze_Age_at_Prague_Designblok_2014_dezeen_468_8.jpg)
Other seats in the collection are made entirely in the emaciated style. These include an arm chair, a dining chair, a lounge chair and a chaise long.
![Tjep. presents Bronze Age at Prague Designblok](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/10/Tjep_presents_Bronze_Age_at_Prague_Designblok_2014_dezeen_468_9.jpg)
Each features thin elements that vary in thickness along their lengths and larger uneven surfaces that distort reflections.
![Tjep. presents Bronze Age at Prague Designblok](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/10/Tjep_presents_Bronze_Age_at_Prague_Designblok_2014_dezeen_468_10.jpg)
The collection was exhibited in the ballroom of the Colloredo Mansfeld Palace during Designblok Prague, which took place last week.
![Tjep. presents Bronze Age at Prague Designblok](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/10/Tjep_presents_Bronze_Age_at_Prague_Designblok_2014_dezeen_468_3.jpg)
Also on display in the space was Tjep.'s Il Treno dining booth inspired by old train compartments and a winged heart of cogs called Clockwork Snow, originally designed for a Christmas window display at Milan department store La Rinascente.