Designer Roderick Vos
“As a child, I came into contact with the orchid through botanical educational illustrations. They were beautifully drawn and the shapes were breathtaking, and I wanted to draw like that too!
Once I had completed a course at the Design Academy in Eindhoven, I developed an intuitive way of working. Whether I am designing a wooden sideboard, a chair or a lamp, I love simplicity. Honestly designed products appeal to me a great deal, but I loathe sensationalist styles. And despite the industrial appearance of my designs, my aim is to give them a traditional look.
Plants create a positive change in a person’s living and working environment, and have a demonstrable effect on people’s well-being. They release oxygen, keep the air clean and increase productivity — it’s as simple as that. It is for good reason that you will find an enormous vertical wall of plants in my design studio in Den Bosch, which gives the feel of a sheltered courtyard garden. Surrounding yourself with nature is fantastic.
I lived and worked in Indonesia for a long time. In the jungle of Irian Jaya, the tiger orchid, which has a raceme of up to 3 metres in length, left an overwhelming impression on me; as did the fact that over 25.000 species of orchids grow there, and that those plants already existed 80 million years ago. Isn’t it fascinating that we still have descendants of these plants in our offices and living rooms nowadays?
The challenge in my partnership with the Art of Life project was to get the orchids off the table. Diversity of colour and the shape of the flower make the orchid extremely interesting; it is already a painting in itself. But an orchid hanging in a room is when it’s at its most beautiful. Anyway, at home I always hang orchids at eye level, as this simply makes them even more beautiful to look at.”
Roderick Vos
Designs furniture, tables, fabrics and lamps etc. For the Art of Life project, he designed an orchid holder which hangs from the ceiling on three wires (but can also stand on the table).