Behind the Atlantis, the Man: Barlas Baylar

Pioneering lighting for the future.

Barlas Baylar is the well-known New York City furniture designer specializing in minimalist works that bring natural elements to modern aesthetics.  Walking through his showrooms at Hudson Furniture is walking into a world where nature has been re-interpreted by architecture and the 21st Century yearns for millennia past.  There one can view the evolution of chandeliers, tables, bed frames and their headboards.  Metal, wood, glass, and stone have been re-imagined to clothe civilization.  Chain chandeliers bear softly curving waves of metallic piping that trace the descent of light through glass strands dripping like fringe off sleeves.  The bittersweet majesty of expiring trees is preserved forever in the solid slab of a seat.  Then there are those accessories which appear at once both stone and wood – petrified wood, of course.  Yet all the floor samples only hint at the hustle of Baylar’s busy NYC workshop.

Twenty-four craftsmen work to transform Baylar’s visions into the utilitarian artwork that adorn celebrity apartments and upscale boutiques alike.  Each piece is unique, with no two exactly the same.  Given a background in production design and hailing from a family tradition rooted in machinery manufacturing, Baylar founded Hudson Furniture to utilize old all-natural materials, modernized with industrial detail to create organic structures that turn interiors into exteriors by suggesting the universe without.  Surfaces are not merely sanded down, but burnished by hand with broken glass to reveal nature’s own eternal craftsmanship underneath.

Concern for nature informs Baylar’s designs, and not just an admiration of her.  He is devoted to the conservation of nature, and uses only sustainable materials for his consoles, panels, sofas, and mirrors.  Only dead and dying lumber is used, sourced domestically of salvaged arbor damaged by wind and storm.  Varieties such as Claro Walnut, Black Walnut, Myrtle, Jasmine, Acacia, Satinwood, and Ebonized Pine are removed by rightful owners to prevent damage to houses or other trees.  Nothing is left to waste.  Scraps and leftovers of every irregularity are re-integrated into every design.  And given the connections developed through family ties and personal experience in various fields, Hudson Furniture is able to be certain of the origins of its materials, with even the official approval of embassies and consulates involved when it comes to necessary imports.  Indeed, his firm is proud to be the city’s sole repository for legally harvested petrified wood.  Thus Baylar’s geometric designs, traditional joinery techniques, and hand-rubbed oil finishes can continue returning to nature to emerge again to furnish civilization.