Beauty is in the eye of the....fire?

Apparently Italy, world renown for good design, has taken it upon itself to find the "Worlds Most Beautiful Object", well at least a few of them have. As reported by the Huffington Post the Pulchra design competition announced its newest winner. The Gyrofocus fireplace by the French firm Focus beat out 100 other objects in a public vote determined by over seventy thousand votes.
I have to say that I am completely impressed. I have yet to see what the completion looked like but the winner is nothing short of stunning. The fireplace is a smooth ellipse with an open shelf of flame supported by nothing else than the chimney flue. It has clean smooth lines with a sense of whimsy easily at home in any overly chic hotel lobby, but, in fact, was first created back in 1968 by designer Dominique Imbert. How can something even after almost half a century remain so visually poignant?
A true piece of art, completely and thoroughly, must be created by something like a master. Anyone who has tried to create minimalist design can attest to the fact that it is HARD. While the ignorant will claim that their five year old could have painted that, or that there is nothing to modern design, they are, in fact, completely 100% wrong. The true essence of "modern" design is form. It is an exercise in the perfection of shape though the use of minimalism.
When form is all there is then form is all that matters. There is no escaping or hiding behind any kind of design device. The shape of the object is all there is. The purity and balance is all you have so every line, every curve, every degree matters. The most minuscule of shape can make or break a design. The thought, the trial and error, the intense attention to detail is what truly sets mediocre modern design away from the great. This is what Imbert has achieved with this fireplace.
The simplicity of form mixed with the ingenuity of convenience, the suspended fireplace rotates 360 degrees to face any direction in its space, merge to form what is really the essence of Design. Creating useful objects that are both functional and gorgeous. To me it represent the simplification of not only an object but of thought. The ability to merge utility and art is almost a meditation on what it means to be human, to strip away all the mess and get down to what is needed while rendering the shape with a perception of beauty, in essence all that we as humans need to survive.

Photo: www.focusfireplaces.com.au

Photo: www.focusfireplaces.com.au

BTW, go check out their website at www.focusfireplaces.com.au, some truly amazing works of functional art.