NUM NUM FLATWARE

摘要

Over the years, toothbrushes have evolved to have thicker, easier-to-grasp handles and pencils have gained slip-on grips for added depth and usability. Yet the handles of flatware have remained largely ignored and static in their design, says Nader Tehrani, principal of Boston-based NADAAA and professor and head of the Department of Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's School of Architecture and Planning. With its prototype Num Num Flatware, his firm set out to establish a more effective and comfortable relationship between hand and utensil. If successful, the fork, spoon, or knife would function as a natural extension of its user. Tehrani, who began the research at his former practice, Office dA, discovered that the key to this relationship laid in the development of a thick wedge at the midpoint of each utensil's handle, where the thumb touches the index and middle fingers. "The design of this silverware began with a generic triangular cross section and evolved into various sections to conform to the hand in all scenarios of purpose and use," he says.