Honored as the producer of heirloom quality hand-carved furniture, with pieces under State protection as national cultural heritage in Bosnia and carving techniques documented by UNESCO, Rukotvorine is not the kind of company one would expect to influence the direction of modern furniture design and production. However, by launching what they call “Manulution,” Rukotvorine is trying to set a new paradigm for modern furniture design. Having won Interior Innovation Awards for its products for two years in a row and secured exceptionally positive reviews by design media on both sides of the Atlantic, their efforts have started to pay off and Manulution is no longer a fledgling, but a hopeful youngster.

As Adem Niksic, Rukotvorine’s Manager and the namesake of his grandfather, who launched the company 85 years ago, notes: “Manulution is an approach to design that exploits the abstractive transformation of traditional craftsmanship into products of modern design. The process results in pieces that are unique and authentic, but undeniably modern.” Salih Teskeredzic, one of the designers for Rukotvorine and the winner of six Interior Innovation Awards in the past two years adds: “Tradition and craftsmanship provide inspiration and production techniques, yet rather than limiting the freedom of expression and experimentation potential, they enhance both. “


In its April 2011 feature on Rukotvorine, the Monocle Magazine Editor notes the following about Rukotvorine’s products: “In a world overladen with “new” designs that look so familiar, it’s striking to see something that doesn’t look like anything else.” Although it is evident that this approach results in more unique and authentic products, the aims of Manulution are substantially more complex.
The evolution of modern design has been shaped to a large degree by the evolution of technology and Rukotvorine is not trying to reverse that course. Instead, they are trying to add new dimensions to design to align it with socio-economic requirements of a new century. “Our aim is to promote an approach to design that contributes to the creation of new jobs for skilled people, as opposed to recent trends that extinguished them.

The Umbra Coffee Table, designed by Jasna Mujkic, which is among the winners of this year’s Interior Innovation Award exemplifies design tailored to highly skilled craftsman. The character of Umbra is particularly enthralling. Its top is constructed by joining together tiny “Penrose Prototiles.” Named after Sir. Roger Penrose, a famous British mathematician who first studied them in 1970s, these prototiles have fascinating geometric and visual properties. They are aperiodic, which means that a shifted copy of the original set will never look the same. The pattern does not repeat! Joining the prototiles together in the table top produces a unique structural pattern. As Jasna, the designer notes ” the table is not decorated with ornaments, it is ornamental in its essence. Watching the surface of this table is like watching a river flow, the image is always the same but we never get bored. It resembles the scattered shade of a tree.”

The design of Umbra is also reflective of Rukotvorine’s commitment to sustainability. It is made of small pieces of walnut wood, left over in furniture production. Walnut tree needs 80 to 100 years to grow. Every little piece of it is valuable. What will otherwise be a waste in production process is used to make this table.
“We source all our woods locally and in a sustainable manner”, says Adem. “Our production process results in minimal waste, and the little waste we produce is used to generate heat to kiln-dry our lumber and heat the company’s premises. The ventilation system, which takes away the sawdust has also been designed to cool the plant, so that air-conditioning is not really needed.”

The products that reflect Manulution are beautiful and unique. If Rukotvorine succeeds in showing the way to others, modern designs will not only meet customers’ expectations for diversity, but will also contribute to the future that is greener and generates employment opportunities for people with exceptional manual skills.

Further information: http://www.rukotvorine.com, http://www.manulution.com

Further information: imm cologne 2012

Original post by Clare Jang