Dirk Wynants (born 9 May 1964) is a

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...

furniture designer.Dirk Wynants
at Style Park He is the son of cabinet maker and studied interior and

furniture design Furniture refers to movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating (e.g., stools, chairs, and sofas), eating (tables), storing items, eating and/or working with an item, and sleeping (e.g., beds and hammocks). Fu ...

at the Sint-Lucas,

Ghent Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded i ...

institute for architecture. In order to learn the tricks of the trade he started as an agent for international design collections. Soon he realised that there still were plenty of opportunities in the furniture trade, especially in the outdoor furniture section. He developed and produced his first idea in his own garage in 1994. This resulted in a round table with four integrated benches, adjustable in height. As a result, children sit higher and closer to the table. Initially the materials used were: stainless steel,

galvanised steel Hot-dip galvanization is a form of galvanization. It is the process of coating iron and steel with zinc, which alloys with the surface of the base metal when immersing the metal in a bath of molten zinc at a temperature of around . When expose ...

and hardwood. Wynants' first design was named Gargantua. Nowadays, this design is considered to be one of the most important design classics in outdoor furniture. The success was huge and Wynants felt like more. He founded Extremis, a company located in

West Flanders ) , settlement_type = Province of Belgium , image_flag = Flag of West Flanders.svg , flag_size = , image_shield = Wapen van West-Vlaanderen.svg , shield_size = , image_map ...

, Belgium that designs contemporary outdoor furniture. Along the years, Wynants also collaborated with other internationally renowned designers like Michael Young and Arnold Merckx. Meanwhile Wynants has won several design awards (the renowned Henry van de Velde Award, the Interior Innovation Award for best item, the FX award, IF award, Innovation Award, Good Design award, ID Magazine Annual Design Review, Prijs voor Vormgeving van de Provincie West-Vlaanderen, FX international design award, Interior Innovation Award, IMM Köln, Red Dot Award, Henry Van De Velde Label 2006, IF award 2007) and a score of management awards (Zelfstandig Ondernemer van het Jaar 2001, Hermes Prijs 2002, Leeuw van de Export 2002, West @ Work 2006). Prof. Dirk Wynants is a Master of Outdoor Durable Furniture and Equipments Design with The Beijing DeTao Masters Academy (DTMA), a high-level, multi-disciplined, application-oriented higher education institution in Shanghai, China.

References

External links

Dirk Wynants Gargantua Garden Table
at Bonluxat

at Archiexpo
Extremis Woodstock
at Style Park {{DEFAULTSORT:Wynants, Dirk Belgian furniture designers 1964 births Living people