In Time For Frieze: Presenting Our Flagship's New Window Display
Extra! Extra!
10 October 2023
Presenting Our New Sculptural Window Installation
"Our goal at Naum House was to capture Métier’s sense of exploration within a timeless world, whilst honouring their commitment to uncompromising quality and artisanship. Our mutual obsessions with material and craft created an immediate synergy between Naum House and Métier from day one." - Hikari Yokoyama, Naum House co-founder
The Inspiration
"We started with an archival Riva blueprint, inspired by the internal construction of a Riva speedboat. The pinnacle of Italian design and engineering, the Riva boat epitomises a golden age of travel, where the journey is just as exciting as the destination." - Hikari Yokoyama
The Design Process
First things first; everything starts with a simple sketch to understand perspective and depth. The structure is rendered and then gradually enhanced with foreshortening and exaggerated twisting to fit within the dimensions of the window space.
The project then moves into the third dimension. This 3-D model is created to identify any glitches in the composition as well as for discovering areas where the perspective could be further enhanced. (It’s also neat to have this little guy around the office).
The Crafting Process
Given the importance both Métier and Naum House assign to hand-craftsmanship, the most perfect artisans to award with building this structure were a husband and wife team with a background in the traditional methods of boat building. Blocks of rich, open-grained teak were selected and hand-carved by the duo in solid pieces, relying on as few fixing points as possible. The resulting mirrored, symmetrical structures reveal the shape of two inverted triangles, quietly recalling the double “M” composition of the Métier logo.
Finishing Touches
To retain, and show off, its beautiful, natural characteristics, it was decided the wood would be left lightly buffed and treated with just a slight wax to finish. Perched in our storefront window, the completed piece appears as an elegant, abstracted, skeletal sculpture, hinting at its inspiration from nautical origins as well as providing a compelling display in celebration of Frieze.
