Furni(cou)ture

The devil is in the details, and in this case it’s wearing Prada.

 Certain furniture designers are using subtle fashion-inspired features to add a bit of sophistication to a simple design.   

Updating the clasp design from a vintage handbag, Mathieu Gustafsson classes up a plain white cabinet without going all ‘Cornelio Cappelini’. 

 ‘Dear Disaster’ by Jenny Ekdahl was designed for the user to be able to create wave patterns on its surface, but ends up looking more like the disaster-mess of a sequin dress after a night out.  

Looks like those massive chunky knits strutted right off the autumn/winter catwalks and into the living room; complete with a ribbed texture and raglan seams. Designer Aga Brzostek’s fashion industry background came directly into play in the making of the ‘Autumn/Winter’ chair.

 Spanish designer Ornella Stocco has created porcelain ‘statement’ joints for her modular furniture design. Like a big bright necklace on a neutral outfit, these connection pieces become the main focus.

Korean designer Dong-Yeop Han has created a cabinet closed by the toggles from a duffle-coat in a n effort to keep your belongings warm and cozy.

Dubbed the ‘Home Traveler’, this giant handbag on feet by Anne Lorenz is portable enough to move from one of the part of the house to another, but not to leave the house. Definitely in our top 10 to never not leave the house without.

Inspired by the silhouette of a stiletto, the ‘Heel’ chair by Nendo has a dainty feminine sophistication that make my toes feel sore just thinking about it.

By Claire Toussaint

Your Design Has Holes

Whether to lighten up a material, let light shine through, or just add a bit of flair, perforations are popping up everywhere. Small holes may have driven the Poinçonneur des Lilas crazy, but we’re mad for them!

The 3+ collection by Oskar Zieta features furniture entirely composed of perforated steel plates. Perfect for cable management, keeping laptops and sweaty backs cool, letting the water through in an outdoor situation, or making a giant chair mobile (?). 

Mutina’s latest tile collection by the Bouroullec Brothers, ‘Pico’, has very small loosely imprinted dots in red or blue, which create a slightly quilted texture from far away. The very subtle touch of color adds an almost nostalgic childhood feel to a clean, modern bathroom or kitchen. 

Somewhere between a huge domino and a monument to braille, Barber Osgerby’s marble bench by Established and Sons for the Victoria & Albert museum in London was inspired by the shrapnel marks left on the museum’s façade. 

Nothing says Champagne like bubbles, which for HK designers John Lin, Joshua Bolchover and Jason Carlow translates into perforations all over the wall, bars and seating of the ‘Maison du Champagne’ in Wan Chai.

Inspired by factory workers’ lockers in the sixties crossed with 18^th century French furniture with mid-century proportions, the pieces in the ‘locker’ collection by Magnus Pettersen each have perforated aluminum fronts. A great way to keep your socks aired out yet out of sight.

The Dream Downtown hotel by Handel Architects takes perforation to an Olympic level. Overlapping layers of perforated metal in different scales give you a connect four, porthole or Swiss cheese feel, depending on how far away from the façade you stand. 

‘Down side up’ by Fabrica is a modular furniture system where each element has an irregularly perforated surface designed to accommodate many variations in configuration. Very clever, although it looks a bit worm-eaten.

‘Moon’ is a perforated serving dish… for your larger fruits and non-saucy items only.

The Kanazawa Umimirai library’s outer shell is evenly perforated from floor to ceiling. The relatively small holes allow bright daylight in the (w)hole building, but take away the view of the outside. No distractions here.

By Claire Toussaint 

Design at the Beach

After a long winter, we’ve had enough of shawl collars and hot cocoa and are ready to skip to the bikini and pina colada part of the year; here are a couple excuses to get down to the beach.

 The ‘Sea chair’, by Studio Swine, is made by collecting discarded plastic on the beach which is melted in a portable furnace (developed by Studio Swine and Kieran Jones) and cast onsite.

 A great way to clean up the beach, and spruce up your cabana! 

Open Source Sea Chair from Studio Swine on Vimeo.

Taking sand-casting back to the source, Max Lamb shows us how to make pewter stools on the seashore, with pretty convincing results.

If you want to bring home a little piece of the beach with you, Bold Design has come up with a way to make little sculptures of the surrounding landscape with sand, using bacteria (the good kind).

The lovely pink bacterial solution hardens the sand placed in a mold in your shape of choice (between an English, French or Thai rock formation).

Modeled on a game played in Japanese temples, ‘Sand’ by Yukihiro Kaneuchi could inspire a more sophisticated sand castle, for adults who still enjoy this beloved summertime activity.  

by Claire Toussaint

Unidentified Design Objects

‘That’s great! ... What is it?’ is a phrase that comes up a lot when scrolling through beautiful design blogs in search of the newest, coolest products.  Is it a bird? Is it a plane? On a white background, completely taken out of context, designs can take on a whole new meaning in the reader’s imagination.

Here are a few examples to ponder on... (Answers at the end of the blog)

Designed by Judith Jacobi (student at Burg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule), this structure could be a fancy bird house/bath, a planter with pole for tomato vines, or convenient place to put your sticks.

‘Fanions’ by Dimitri Bahler, Linn Kandel and Ismael Studer: Street art? Panic button? 

‘Cuts’ by Philippe Nigro looks like a desk organizer or a cake stand. Of course, it’s pretty impossible to guess scale from this picture... Maybe an outdoor structure?  

Here’s an interesting looking object: ‘Spike’ by Alexander Lervik. This could be a knife holder, a file organizer, a holder for matches of all different lengths? Ooh, or a dish rack!

‘Scout’, by sandbox industries, is a series of boxes in all different sizes. This could indicate a series of kitchen containers, or possibly some kind of set of technological accessories to accompany your TV? The mystery shall remain until the end of this post.

Not sure why this odd bike rack ended up in the middle of a field... Maybe it’s one of Theo Jansen’s kinetic sculptures.  

Ready-made for the ‘freak-of-nature’ part of the Museum of Natural History? These strange growths swimming in a vat of formaldehyde could be anything from a glob of mercury to double-headed cow embryo (in the most appealing way possible). Looks more like a Damien Hirst than a Jean-Marie Massaud..

‘Nekton’ by Zaha Hadid is a collection of four organic, white, non-symmetrical objects. Possibly hearing aids adapted to different people’s ears? Braces for awkward muscle sprains? Ergonomic neck(ton) pillows? 

Another organic shape for the ‘Saruyama’ by Moroso; this time I’m going with a place to put keys, marbles, paperclips and other random hair accessories. Could also be some kind of embarrassing medical device. 

‘Snug’ by Kumeko: definitely a laundry bag. Or a place to store blankets or socks (depending on the scale). 

Oh, okay... it was a:

Place for guests to put their clothes and other belongings! 

A rug! 

A coffee table! 

A chair! 

A home security system!

 A chair!

 A vase!

A bench! 

A sofa! 

An Armchair! 

by Claire Toussaint