SECRET GARDEN

Simple and elegant with its smooth and stripped down lines, the umbrella holder “the secret garden” is a poetic object. It pays tribute to the Japanese philosophy and tradition of Zen gardens.

Designed by Abdelkarim Antar, this object is made up of two parts that fit elegantly thanks to the simplicity of their lines and their materials.

The upper part is an asymmetrical plastic receptacle which receives various sizes of umbrellas. . After being in the rain, umbrellas water drips into the receptacle that feeds vegetation requiring a minimal amount of water. It’s a whole microcosm that is created inside this bubble that progressively shows through the gradient lacquering of the glass.

This microcosm is not a true copy of reality: it creates a miniature ideal, a unique universe, a poetic shelter or a meditative oasis that allows a step back from oneself and the world around us.

With its meteorological station, this umbrella holder invites you to take an umbrella according to the weather. The hand-blown glass ancestral technique used for this project, sublimates the common story concerning weather: «should I take or not an umbrella? ».

The ancestral technique of mouth-molded blown glass allows to give a pure form without concession to this station that puts the ritual of the umbrella back into history.