The love for bamboo creates a timeless bench

Spring Copenhagen’s newest product, the bench Uno Ora, is a result of love for a particular material: bamboo. The strong, sustainable and easy material was the perfect choice for the designer behind the bench, Kenn Vendelbo.

Kenn Vendelbo didn’t mean to design a bench. Working as a purchasing manager for Spring Copenhagen since august 2019, designing wasn’t an obvious move. But Kenn Vendelbo has a partiality to a particular material: bamboo. And so, the bench was made out of love.

” Bamboo is a very strong and sustainable material. Sustainable because it is a grass sort that re-plants itself when you cut it down”, tells Kenn Vendelbo. This way you avoid having to sow the bamboo again and thereby you save resources. 

“Also, it only takes 4-6 years from you sow the bamboo to you can cut it down and reuse. With an oak it can take up to 40-50 years.”

Next to his job Kenn Vendelbo owns a little design bureau called Fabrikata. It’s Fabrikata that produces Uno Ora.

Uno Ora gives a floating feeling

The fascination of bamboo didn’t come out of thin air.

In the past Kenn Vendelbo worked as a consultant for a Chinese company choosing assortments and develop ideas for how to decide which products to sell. The owner of the company was an expert in bamboo and that influences Kenn Vendelbo. So, when a customer one day came and asked for a bench, Kenn Vendelbo started to research. The bench needed to fit in small areas such as the hallway and the bathroom and it couldn’t take up too much space.
Vendelbo’s research started with rough sketching inspired by the design icons of the 60ies and it resulted in a bench with conic legs and a seat that exudes lightness, adding an almost floating feeling. At the same time, it is incredibly strong and durable due to the qualities of the bamboo. “Light, airy and timeless”, as the man behind Fabrikata calls it.

“Making this very bench showed to be perfect in the light of my knowledge of the material and its colour. Bamboo is quite extraordinary and the bench wouldn’t have had the same expression if made in a different material.”

By colour Kenn Vendelbo means the particular treatment given to the bamboo. Usually bamboo’s colour is reddish, but the bench’s bamboo almost looks like oak tree and this gives the bench a certain charm.

A pause in everyday life

Uno Ora represents a little spot where you can sit and think things through while enjoying a cup of coffee. But it’s also meant to be a functional furniture used in all rooms in and out 

“The bench is a place where the kids can sit and put on their roller-skates, you can enjoy a glass of wine or you can take a rest after gardening”, says Kenn Vendelbo.

Bamboo is incredibly strong. But it doesn’t weigh much. Therefore, the idea with the bench is also that it is movable, presenting various opportunities for use. Just like the rest of Spring Copenhagen’s products.  

You can place it in the hallway, but if the weather turns out good, you can take it outside and use it as sun spot.

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