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Soft Baroque

British

London-based design studio Soft Baroque melds conventional household furniture and objects with conceptual art. Its experimental approach to design is evocative, fantastical and functional. 

Soft Baroque was founded in 2013 by design duo Saša Štucin and Nicholas Gardner. Štucin studied at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design of the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in visual communications in 2011. Gardner earned a bachelor’s degree in furniture design in 2010 from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia. Štucin and Gardner later met while attending London’s Royal College of Art. They both graduated in 2013, Štucin with a master’s degree in visual communications and Gardner with a master’s degree in design products.

In 2011, Štucin took part in a workshop under Milton Glaser at the School of Visual Arts in New York and, in 2013, he participated in a research project at the Sandberg Instituut’s Think Tank for Visual Strategies in Amsterdam. Gardner worked as an assistant in designer Jerszy Seymour’s studio in Berlin in 2012 and as an assistant in Max Lamb’s design studio in 2013.

Since partnering as Soft Baroque, Štucin and Gardner have garnered critical attention for their unconventional modern furniture and objets d’art. The studio’s first piece — designed in 2014 — was the Lenticularis mirror, an innovative cross between a mirror and a scent diffuser. Another notable early work was the cartoon-like Pearl Screw Shelf bookcase in 2017, which features broken walnut timber planks, engineered plastic shelves and freshwater pearl screws. 

Other pieces, such as chairs, benches, the Puffy Brick Column stools, vases, tables and lighting, are designed to blur the lines between functionalism and art. As Gardner explained in an interview with PIN-UP Magazine, “With a lot of our objects, we try to form a strange equation.” 

Soft Baroque’s unique designs have included commissions from the luxury fashion brand Balenciaga and Swedish design company HEM. The duo has exhibited their pieces at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the Swiss Institute in New York City, galleries in Copenhagen and New York and in major international design fairs.

On 1stDibs, discover a range of Soft Baroque seating, case pieces and storage cabinets, decorative objects and more.

Toothpick Mirror
By Soft Baroque
Located in Copenhagen, DK
The traditional and tapered mortice and tenon have been rebranded many times. We continue this evolution, converging to a sharp a point, becoming a piece of domestic hostile design. ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary European Modern Soft Baroque

Materials

Wenge

Toothpick Mirror
Toothpick Mirror
H 29.93 in W 20.87 in D 1.19 in
Toothpick Chair
By Soft Baroque
Located in Copenhagen, DK
The traditional and tapered mortice and tenon have been rebranded many times. We continue this evolution, converging to a sharp a point, becoming a piece of domestic hostile design. ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary European Modern Soft Baroque

Materials

Beech

Toothpick Chair
Toothpick Chair
H 79.5 in W 61.5 in D 55.5 in
Diet Wood Console
By Soft Baroque
Located in Copenhagen, DK
Most wood furniture today is made from veneered chipboard, it conveys its value with its outer surface. These pieces work backwards from that layer, starting with veneer and applyin...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary European Organic Modern Soft Baroque

Materials

Aluminum

Diet Wood Console
Diet Wood Console
H 38.59 in W 50.79 in D 13.78 in
Diet wood side table
By Soft Baroque
Located in Copenhagen, DK
Most wood furniture today is made from veneered chipboard, it conveys its value with its outer surface. These pieces work backwards from that layer, starting with veneer and applying...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary European Modern Soft Baroque

Materials

Aluminum

Diet wood side table
Diet wood side table
H 30.32 in W 19.69 in D 19.3 in
Toothpick Stool
By Soft Baroque
Located in Copenhagen, DK
The traditional and tapered mortice and tenon have been rebranded many times. We continue this evolution, converging to a sharp a point, becoming a piece of domestic hostile design. ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary European Modern Soft Baroque

Materials

Wenge

Toothpick Stool
Toothpick Stool
H 19.3 in W 21.07 in D 15.16 in
Toothpick Stand
By Soft Baroque
Located in Copenhagen, DK
The traditional and tapered mortice and tenon have been rebranded many times. We continue this evolution, converging to a sharp a point, becoming a piece of domestic hostile design. ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary European Modern Soft Baroque

Materials

Wenge

Toothpick Stand
Toothpick Stand
H 30.52 in W 10.63 in D 10.63 in
Diet Wood Shelf
By Soft Baroque
Located in Copenhagen, DK
Most wood furniture today is made from veneered chipboard, it conveys its value with its outer surface. These pieces work backwards from that layer, starting with veneer and applyin...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary European Modern Soft Baroque

Materials

Aluminum

Diet Wood Shelf
Diet Wood Shelf
H 23.82 in W 70.87 in D 8.67 in
"New Surface Strategies" Chair by Soft Baroque
By Soft Baroque
Located in Copenhagen, DK
Blue textile covered wooden chair by London based design duo Soft Baroque, previously shown at Het Nieuwe Institut. Renderings are becoming more diabolic...
Category

2010s English Modern Soft Baroque

Materials

Pine

"New Surface Strategies" Chair by Soft Baroque
"New Surface Strategies" Chair by Soft Baroque
H 29.53 in W 15.36 in D 15.75 in
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Soft Baroque furniture for sale on 1stDibs.

Soft Baroque furniture are available for sale on 1stDibs. These distinctive items are frequently made of wood and are designed with extraordinary care. There are many options to choose from in our collection of Soft Baroque furniture, although brown editions of this piece are particularly popular. Many of the original furniture by Soft Baroque were created in the modern style in united kingdom during the 21st century and contemporary. If you’re looking for additional options, many customers also consider furniture by Toad Gallery, Coco Wolf, and OMK. Prices for Soft Baroque furniture can differ depending upon size, time period and other attributes — on 1stDibs, these items begin at $2,004 and can go as high as $10,625, while a piece like these, on average, fetch $3,112.

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