Form, Fun, Flair: Contemporary Furniture By Ahmed El-Attar

All designers face the dilemma of form and function - which follows which? ‘By Ahmed El Attar’ (ByAA) is a furniture design firm that found the right balance, using modern techniques to create outrageous forms that are as easy on the eye as they are on your posture.

“Two of our signature products, the Comfy chair and Ruby Red couch, were chosen by the set design director of the Arabic remake of ‘Suits’ to complete the spaces,” Founder and Head Designer Ahmed El Attar tells #SceneHome. “The spaces were minimal and the pieces added something daring to the show’s environment. This proved to us that we were on the right track, that our products were the centre of attention wherever they were placed.”

The Ruby Red couch champions an attractive shade of red and gets its edgy form from the design firm’s natural inspirations, namely, soundwaves. “I always challenge myself to make wooden products that are edgy and daring,” El Attar continues, referring to the Avant Garde air that surrounds his pieces. The designer approaches furniture with the same care that is associated with artworks and jewellery. “It was important that the brand had a visual identity that fits the artistic genre. We want our clients, whether they are designers or homeowners, to feel like they’ve obtained something precious.”

Such homeowners include the dazzling actress Dorra Zarrouk and her husband and renowned designer Hany Saad, who received ByAA’s Gigantic Double-sided bench and placed it outdoors. The sofa embodies the furniture designer’s finesse, being of massive scale and rippling visuals.

Ahmed El Attar graduated from the AUC in 2018 with a degree in architectural engineering. He founded By Ahmed El Attar in 2019 with the intention of doing something different and adding to Egypt’s saturated furniture market. A year later he also founded Contempo By Style Furniture, a contemporary line that showcases modern designs produced by his family business.

El Attar had a love and passion for building blocks from a young age, making things from scratch and mixing toys together. His father, Engineer Gamal El Attar - who founded a factory in 1984 called Style Furniture - took note of this behaviour, and took Ahmed El Attar to his factory to introduce him to the processes of bringing products to life. “I used to spend huge chunks of my summertime there,” El Attar recalls. “I enjoyed the process of creation and manufacturing.”

ByAA’s designs have a signature look resulting from the techniques they apply to their designs. But it was their inspirations that compelled them to use modern applications. “Our inspiration mainly stems from nature. It could be anything around us,” he says. “Phenomena like how sea waves are shaped by wind, or Earth circling the sun, or even the human body and all its intricacies. There’s plenty of inspiration in nature.”

The firm tries to dive into natural processes and unravel its language through the product’s lines. Bending wood isn’t as easy as it may sound, especially when the  curves are following nature’s immense details that are extremely difficult to replicate. Every angle in the product’s structure needs to be accurate and precise. Hence, their use of parametric design techniques which allows for computational accuracy that results in many variants and prototypes. Ensure that the final version is stylish, edgy and comfortable.

While some of their products are purely aesthetic, like the Mannequin Madness sculpture which was inspired by the female figure, others such as the Trunk-like bench blend function with beauty. “It’s a long wooden bench with grain that exudes natural hue. It was inspired by the beauty of trees in the jungle and was created for the outdoors.”

“When it came to the Bombshell Semi-chaise we chose the colour of the sun because it represents warmth and summertime fun,” El Attar says of their catchy yellow, glossy piece. “People thought that it was made out of plastic, but it’s another example of how we are keen on pushing the limits of wood.”

The firm designed a counter at Zed Park’s Italiano, a calm restaurant that boasts the black El-Attar design. “It’s matte to match the interior, with a marble top that complements it. We try to integrate other materials than wood when the product needs that,” he says of Wave-storm counter. The future for ByAA includes plenty of experimenting with other materials. The product design firm views itself capable of competing with international brands due to their quality, attention to detail and most importantly, inspiration. And more importantly, because why not?