设计师波克·赫弗

用手工编织造房子，听起来是否像是只会发生在《动物世界》里的情节，换到人类世界里就有些不可思议，难以想象？在蓬勃发展的南非设计界，设计师波克·赫弗（Porky Hefer），就利用本土传统编织工艺与当地可得的茅草、藤条、回收塑料等材料，编织出秋千、树屋，甚至大型别墅的立面，成为独具非洲本土风格特色的现代人类“鸟巢”作品。

Does building a house by hand sound like a plot that only happens in animal world? It's incredible and unimaginable to change to the human world? In the booming design industry in South Africa, the designer porky hefer weaves swings, tree houses and even the facade of large villas by using local traditional weaving technology and locally available thatch, rattan, recycled plastic and other materials, becoming a modern human "bird's nest" work with unique African local style and characteristics.

纺织者之巢系列

脑洞大开的赫弗，是个有着从业16年之久的昔日“广告人”。在天马行空的赫弗看来，广告业仍然局限了他无穷的创造力与将创意落地的无数灵感。赫弗在2007年离开了广告公司，成立了一家名叫“动物庄园”（Animal Farm）的设计工作室，将有趣、诙谐、艺术、功能与对人类居住的思考，和丰厚的本土文化相融合。在赫弗的设计理念中，非洲本土技艺与材料有着无穷的魅力，而生活事物的日常性、功能性中，则隐藏了常被忽视的美感，能给设计师们思考人类的“栖息”带来许多有意思的新思路。

Heffer, who has a big brain hole, is a former "advertiser" who has worked for 16 years. In the view of huff, the advertising industry is still limited to his infinite creativity and countless inspiration to implement his creativity. Heffer left the advertising agency in 2007 and set up a design studio called "animal farm", which integrates fun, humor, art and function with the thinking of human residence and rich local culture. In heffer's design concept, African local skills and materials have infinite charm, while the beauty often neglected is hidden in the daily and functional nature of living things, which can bring many interesting new ideas for designers to think about human "Habitat".

纺织者之巢系列

赫弗对鸟巢有着莫大的兴趣与好奇。织巢鸟这种神奇的小生物，在进化的路途中，获得了令赫弗惊叹的编织能力。通过对这种鸟类的观察，赫弗将它们复杂的筑巢技术，运用在建造适合人类居住的大型“鸟巢”上，创作了“纺织者之巢”（Weaver’s Nest）系列树屋作品。这些看起来质朴又充满结构感的人类巢穴，完全是用赫弗从当地所收集的树枝树皮等原始材料编织而成，没有任何钢结构支撑，却结实美观，能够承受最多四位成人的重量。

Heffer has great interest and curiosity about the bird's nest. Weaver's amazing weaving ability was acquired by weaver, a magical little creature, on the way of evolution. Through the observation of this bird, heffer applied their complex nesting technology to the construction of a large "bird's nest" suitable for human habitation, and created a series of tree houses of "Weaver's nest". These human nests, which look simple and full of structural sense, are completely woven from the original materials such as branches and bark collected by heffer from the local area. Without any steel structure support, they are strong and beautiful, and can bear the weight of up to four adults.

图左：黑洞系列  图右：纺织者之巢

在“纺织者之巢”的基础上，赫弗在更多“鸟巢”主题作品中，对材料展开了更多的探索。“黑洞”（Blackhole）系列是赫弗与津巴布韦针织艺术家尼尔森·班德森（Nelson Bandeson）共同完成的一个鸟巢状秋千系列。赫弗所使用的材质不再是自然材料，而是回收的废弃卡车轮胎皮。这些轮胎皮被拼接成具有非洲特色的纹案图样，特殊的颜色、纹理与光泽，让这些鸟巢看起来仿佛是一些被放大几十倍的黑色陶土制品，充满神秘、古朴之感。可当使用者伸手触碰这些秋千时，胶皮的手感却又十分醒目地提醒着使用者，这些材料是使用寿命可以长达四万年的人造橡胶，而非传统陶土或木质等自然材料。

On the basis of "Weaver's nest", heffer explored more materials in more "bird's nest" themed works. The "black hole" series is a bird's nest swing series jointly completed by heffer and Zimbabwean knitting artist Nelson bandeson. The material used by heffer is no longer natural material, but recycled waste truck tire skin. These tire skins are spliced into patterns with African characteristics. The special color, texture and luster make these bird nests look like some black clay products magnified dozens of times, full of mystery and simplicity. But when users reach out and touch these swings, the feel of the rubber is a very eye-catching reminder to users that these materials are artificial rubber with a service life of up to 40000 years, rather than natural materials such as traditional clay or wood.

包装编织巢

另一件名为“包装编织巢”（Packaging Strapping Nest）的鸟巢作品，如其直白名字所述，则是用回收塑料包装所制成的塑料带子编织成的鸟巢秋千。这些本应充满了人造质感的蓝绿色材料，挂在林中即与周围植物颜色融为了一体，从内部向外看，它们给鸟巢内部赋予了奇妙的透光效果，从外观上来看，这又仿佛是一种关于未来人类在自然中生存的有趣幻想。

无论是与艺术家合作，还是运用回收胶皮或塑料，除了结合本土文化、使用触手可及的材料，创造环境与社会可持续作品的考量，物品本身的功能、材料与对使用场景充满美感的幻想，也借这个小小的鸟巢融合在了一起。编织、收集癖、异想世界、温柔的黑洞与斑斓的树影……这些汇集在当代设计表现之下的原始意象，在这些小小的鸟巢中互相对话，让鸟巢中的人类居住者，在简单的质料包裹下拥了一个小小的冒险世界。鸟巢变成了包裹无限宇宙的果壳，人类钻进鸟巢就仿佛钻进了无限自由新世界，化身为鸟插翅飞行。

Another bird's nest work called "packaging strapping nest", as stated in its straightforward name, is a bird's nest swing made of plastic tape made of recycled plastic packaging. These blue-green materials, which should be full of artificial texture, hang in the forest, which is integrated with the colors of the surrounding plants. From the inside to the outside, they give a wonderful light transmission effect to the inside of the bird's nest. From the appearance, it seems to be an interesting fantasy about human survival in nature in the future. Whether cooperating with artists or using recycled rubber or plastic, in addition to the consideration of local culture, using accessible materials and creating environmental and social sustainable works, the function, materials and aesthetic fantasy of the use scene of the object are also integrated with this small bird's nest. Weaving, collecting addiction, fantasy world, gentle black holes and colorful tree shadows... These primitive images gathered under the expression of contemporary design talk to each other in these small bird nests, so that the human residents in the bird's nest embrace a small adventure world wrapped in simple materials. The bird's nest has become a fruit shell covering the infinite universe. Human beings entering the bird's nest is like entering the new world of infinite freedom, incarnating as birds flying with wings.