Design Description

“Metal is characterised by yielding and changing.” Though metal is firm and hard, it undergoes transformation when heated. By extension, it signifies the qualities of descending, compliance, and contraction. Among the five elements, the lung pertains to metal; like a prime minister who carries out the monarch’s mandate, it governs the upward and outward diffusion and descending and purification of qi, and, like the cool autumn and dusk, gathers and restrains yang qi.

The chapter Yinyang Yingxiang Dalun (Great Treatise on the Correspondences of Yin and Yang) of Suwen (Plain Questions) states: “The centre generates dampness; dampness generates earth; earth generates sweetness; sweetness generates the spleen; the spleen generates flesh; flesh generates the lung; the spleen governs the mouth.” The lung corresponds to metal in the five elements and is the prime minister organ, like a chancellor coordinating and directing; it governs upward and outward diffusion, descent and purification of qi, distributing essence throughout the body to nourish the hundred vessels and the skin.

Drawing on this imagery, the seating is constructed from flowing, softened metal that evokes the nature of metal whilst softening its usual cold rigidity, using gentle curves to create a restful atmosphere with a sense of breath. The mirror-finished surface not only alludes to the clearing and reflective qualities of “metal” but also echoes the imagery of meridians and collaterals in “the lung governs qi” and “the lung presides over the hundred vessels, distributing essence to the skin and body hair”, like qi flowing ceaselessly through the body, dynamic energy within a still structure, offering a public space for contemplative experience.