Soren Kjaer
Co-Founder & Head of Industrial Design
Danish furniture designer and former head of prototyping for Scandinavian architectural studios. Oversees mechanical articulation, kinetic joints and structural geometry.
About the atelier
Honoring Material Permanence and Industrial Purity
Kinetic / Forma exists at the intersection of precision engineering and elemental materiality, building architectural archetypes designed to outlast generations.
2017
Founded
3
Global studios
50 yrs
Parts archive
Origins
An Unyielding Index of Permanent Archetypes
Established in 2017 across Copenhagen and Kyoto, the studio formed in response to the premature obsolescence endemic to commercial design.
Contemporary production had traded genuine structural integrity for synthetic veneers and ephemeral aesthetic cycles. In response, we enacted a rigorous rejection of the seasonal catalogue. Instead, the studio curates a serialized index of permanent architectural archetypes. Every luminaire, credenza and partition is engineered around a dry-fit modular mechanical fastening system, eliminating irreversible chemical glues and synthetic resin binders completely. Through our lifelong refurbishment charter, every component bearing the studio stamp can be dismantled, resurfaced or recast back into raw alloy ingots. We consider our objects not disposable interior decor, but lasting physical capital.
Objects are not decor. They are lasting physical capital.
Architectural pillars
The Criteria Behind Every Object
Four uncompromising standards govern mechanical engineering, foundry metallurgy and joinery across the studio.
01
Monomaterial Honesty
Cast bronze remains untreated raw alloy; solid hinoki and slow-growth white oak age with authentic organic patina.
02
50-Year Repairability Guarantee
Exposed mechanical fasteners allow complete tool-free replacement of drivers, sockets and structural dowels.
03
Closed-Loop Metal Foundry
All bronze, brass and aluminium swarf from CNC machining is captured, catalogued, melted and recast on site in Milan.
04
0.05mm Architectural Tolerance
Multi-axis milling and hand-rubbed organic oil finishes deliver hairline seam alignment across timber and metal.
Manufacturing & craft
Four Disciplines Under One Roof
Foundry, joinery, optics and leatherwork are developed as one continuous material practice.
Sand-Cast Bronze & Recycled Alloy Foundry
Heavy tactile hardware patinated with natural sulfur and unbleached beeswax, slowly annealed for dimensional stability.
Precision Micro-Tolerance Joinery
Japanese interlocking mortise and tenon systems, dry-fit without synthetic adhesives and naturally dried across 36 months.
Architectural LED Luminaire Engineering
Custom 2700K diffusers, mouth-blown opal glass and billet-milled heat sinks rated for 60,000 operating hours.
Archival Leather & Natural Fibre Tanning
Vegetable-tanned Tuscan saddle leather, dense linen webbing and natural horsehair, free from chromium salts.
Principals & master craftsmen
The People Behind the Tolerance
Directing manufacturing ethics, timber curation and precision metallics across our global ateliers.
Emi Tanaka
Co-Founder & Director of Materiality
Architect and Kyoto joinery master focused on spatial proportion, tactile woodcraft and ancestral Japanese joinery applied to modern forms.
Matteo Bellini
Master Metallurgist & Foundry Director
Third-generation bronze caster in Milan overseeing alloy formulation, CNC milling and hand chemical oxidation patination.
Architectural commission
Specify Kinetic / Forma for Your Next Commission
Access complete mechanical drawings, Revit and BIM models, photometric IES data and physical finish samples dispatched within 48 hours to registered practices.
Direct line
Reach us directly.
Architectural permanence through monomaterial purity, manufactured in Denmark, Italy, Japan and the United States.
Request the material archive.
A calibrated box of bronze, oak, hinoki, travertine and saddle leather samples, dispatched to registered practices.