MEET THE MAKER
FURNITURE WITH A TWIST
Stephen Gulau’s sculptural takes on functional household objects make a striking case for designing outside the box. • by CHRISTINE DEORIO
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| 5280 HOME | DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020
what comes out of it,” he says. Some of the resulting designs have never been built, like a sculptural seat—dubbed the “Spine chair.” (Fabricating its brass “vertebrae” requires tools and metalworking skills Gulau has yet to acquire.) But for Gulau, bringing a piece to life isn’t necessarily the end goal: “If a design can spark a conversation or even curiosity, I think that’s a win.” sgulau.com
Even the names of Gulau’s handmade furnishings pique curiosity: at left, the Awkward Bench; above, the Tense Bench.
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: ILLUSTRATION BY CHANTAL BENNETT; TAMARA PORRAS; KYLIE FITTS, COURTESY OF STEPHEN GULAU
an angular, lacquered-steel base topped For Colorado artist and designer with thin wood slats rotated ever so slightly Stephen Gulau, just playing around along a center axis, forcing those who perch in his shop has yielded a diverse portfolio of upon the bench’s tilted ends toward each unconventional, experimental furniture other. The piece began as a large art designs that straddle the line between object with which Gulau explored the functional objects and fine art. skewing of repetitive forms. But once “In the past, I’ve done a lot of he considered its potential function commissioned work built for a specific and meaning, the object became a client and space,” says Gulau, bench and a means of encouragwho also spent years teaching ing human connections: “If two wood shop and fabrication at art strangers sit on the ends of the schools in Chicago and San Franbench, it feels awkward,” he says, cisco before returning to his Clear Stephen Gulau “but ironically, as they move toward Creek County hometown in 2018 to the middle of the bench—and each other—it focus on his own design practice—currently becomes less awkward.” based in a 6-by-10-foot cargo trailer adjacent Whether he’s designing a functional shelvto his portable, solar- and wind-powered tiny ing/table/lighting installation inspired by house. “Now, 90 percent of the stuff I make, peeling old wallpaper, or an off-kilter dining I make for me out of my own curiosity,” he table finished in melted white plastic, Gulau’s says. (Gulau still welcomes commissions, and creative process hinges on finding an interalso sells select pieces through the shoppable esting element, then “extrapolating it, going homes staged by Denver-based Guest House.) deeper and deeper and exaggerating it to see Take the Awkward Bench, for example,