Rotterdam-based designer Maria Tyakina experiments with glass forms that redefine the boundaries between form and function. Her latest collection of glass furniture, entitled ‘Between a Rock and a Hard Place’, represents the next stage of an artistic journey that previously explored the possibilities of wood and marble. This time the design focuses on transparency, fluidity and an interesting dialogue between presence and absence, bringing a new quality to the world of functional furniture.
The collection consists of three pieces: a console, a bookcase and a side table. Each has been created from 15-millimetre tempered glass, which acquires an extraordinary dynamic effect thanks to the use of a rare technique of combining curvilinear shapes. Working together with the renowned Van Dijken Glas team, Maria Tyakina has developed a method that allows the glass to cease to be merely a decorative accessory and become both a structure and a decoration. As the observer traverses the space around the furniture, the solidity of the material gives way to transparency, creating a multi-layered visual effect that changes depending on the angle of view.
Innovative joining techniques
A distinctive feature of the collection is the unique technique of joining the glass elements. Through precise research and experimentation on how to put the individual glass fragments together, Maria Tyakina’s form safeguarded commonly held patterns while exploring the potential of glass as the main supporting element. The unique balance between fragility and strength creates a contrast that not only experiments with traditional associations about the material, but also highlights the role of light, transparency and reflection in the story behind each design. This duality of material – both fragile and resilient – sets new directions in thinking about structure, where aesthetics are intertwined with functionality.
Maria Tyakina is a designer for whom everyday objects become a medium for exploring form, perception and spatiality. Her work is a constant experimentation in which craftsmanship, form and construction occupy an important place. Her creative process is based on intensive modelling and material testing, through which she discovers new aspects of familiar raw materials. By accepting the natural transformations of materials over time, Tyakina gives her designs a unique character in which materials are given soul and history. In the collection ‘Between a Rock and a Hard Place’, the artist invites us into a space where the story becomes as important as the construction, and where light and reflections create a narrative full of surprises.
The power of narrative in form and structure
The collection not only redefines the traditional roles of the materials used, but also forces the viewer to consider the boundaries between static and dynamic, materiality and illusion. Each piece of furniture seems to be in a constant state of transformation – on the one hand acting as a solid support and on the other opening up a space in which the viewer seeks new interpretations of reality. Maria Tyakinay’s innovative approach makes the furniture not only a utilitarian object, but above all a work of art that challenges our habits and the way we perceive everyday objects.
design: Maria Tyakina
photography: Elmer Driessen
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