Inspired, in part, by the Korean concept of baesanimsu—the notion that the ideal home has a mountain at the back and a river in the front—Bae Se Hwa designs furniture that is at once organic and high tech, and simultaneously fluid and solid. The undulating shapes made from slatted wood in his “Steam Series” are first created on the computer with the digital rendering of a geometric form, which he then edits into a harmonious and elegant shape that seems almost to beckon the body. Once the form is developed, Bae uses the handcraft method of steam-bending wood, steaming strips of walnut until it can be bent into a mold, where it sets in seconds.