The architectural firm of Claesson Koivisto Rune has designed the Etage Coffee Table for Swedish manufacturer OFFECCT.

Etage consists of three coffee tables in different colors and sizes. At first glance, they appear to almost hover above the floor. The three table tops protrude in different directions like balconies, revealing their underlying architectural inspiration: the table is a mini-building without walls—a building under construction. The different levels create spaces for magazines and remote control devices.

Each table features one strong color and two muted colors. Bright green, pink, and orange tones are combined with more muted shades of blue, beige, and brown. The color inspiration comes from the team’s many trips to South America and Spain for lecturing and teaching engagements. The colors of the Etage tables are an interesting combination of a muted Scandinavian palette, and more intense colors that are almost drawn from a folk art tradition.

Visit the OFFECCT website – here.

Visit Claesson Koivisto Rune’s website – here.

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The agents at Kay & Burton have recently listed for sale this 4 bedroom, 4 bathroom contemporary house in the Hawthorn neighborhood of Melbourne, Australia.

Visit the Kay & Burton website – here.

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Swedish designer Anu Moser has created the Nova pendant lamp collection for Norwegian lighting manufacturer Northern Lighting.

Nova is a pendant lamp series at the interface between light design, handcraft and art. The mouth blown shade of the lamp is made out of three layers of glass, transparent, white, transparent. Nova consists of three different lamp models each of which has an individually formed pattern of transparent glass pieces added manually to each lamp after the main body was blown. Every lamp is unique as a result of this manual pattern making. The lamp series also has an innovative and patented hanging solution, which makes it easy to change the bulb even for a novice.

The Nova series is inspired by the dusky light from the stars seen in the Nordic sky on a clear night. Thus, the Nova series consists of three round light stars: Ophelia, Callisto and Miranda. Nova emits an even and soft interior light regardless of bulb type used. The lamps are suited for public and private interior spaces, and become interesting objects of art in a room even when the light is switched off.

Visit Northern Lighting’s website – here.

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Studio Ectypos have designed this house in the Sunset Hill neighborhood of Seattle, Washington.

From the architects:

A live-work residence designed for an interior designer and a modern abstract painter. The pictorial name of the project was dictated by the orientation of the house and the way it modulates, softens and fragments the intense western light. The view toward Puget Sound and the Olympic Peninsula is free from structural impediments with dramatic openings while the east side is more solid and private. A system of exposed concrete mass walls and steel frames constitute the bones of the project. The massing is composed of volumes stepping down from north to south in terraces. Trellises and green roofs cradle the upper floor and master suite in a private and dramatic setting. From the structural skeleton to the smallest detail everything is a clear continuity between idea and material.

Visit the Studio Ectypos website – here.

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Joachim Manz designed the Trabant pendant lamp for German lighting manufacturer Tecnolumen. The lamps are concrete balls that hang on a thin wire, and on one end of the concrete ball is a glass lens (either matte or clear) that maintains the same curve as the rest of the ball. The lamps come in two versions, Trabant 1 has a thin lane in the concrete that allows rotating and tilting the lamp, while Trabant 2 does not.

Visit Tecnolumen’s website – here.   Visit the Joachim Manz website – here.

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The Municipality of Reggio Calabria in southern Italy, has signed an agreement with Zaha Hadid Architects for the Regium Waterfront project.

The project aims to define the city of Reggio Calabria as a Mediterranean cultural capital through the realization of two characteristic buildings: a museum and a multifunctional building for performing arts.

The location of the site on the narrow sea strait separating continental Italy from Sicily, offers an opportunity to create two unique buildings visible from the sea and the Sicilian coast: a Museum of the Mediterranean History and a Multifunctional Building.

The form of the museum draws inspiration from the organic shapes of a starfish. The radial symmetry of this shape helps to coordinate the communication and circulation between different sections of the museum and its other facilities. The Museum of Mediterranean History will house exhibition spaces, restoration facilities, an archive, an aquarium and library.

Visit the website of Zaha Hadid Architects – here.

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French designer Inga Sempé has created the Coussin Sofa for Norwegian manufacturer L.K. Hjelle

From Inga Sempé:

Coussin is a sofa which looks simpathetic and soft and in which one feels good. It was conceived for adults and children. It is simply made of a base bed with a mattress on which is fixed a long cushion, with loose ends which can be put where you desire. It is like being on a bed using pillows under your head, under your feet, wraping yourself into them, or just sitting comfortably. Coussin can be both a nest and a sofa.

(Coussin means pillow in french).

Visit Inga Sempé’s website – here.   Visit L.K. Hjelle’s website – here.

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Designer Gitta Gschwendtner has created woodcrete stools cast from moulds based on paper shopping bags.

Design Museum and Time Out have commissioned Gitta Gschwendtner to investigate the tangible link between design and the city in an installation for the Design Museum Tank exploring the theme “Consume”. Referencing material consumption, Gitta Gschwendtner has created woodcrete stools cast from moulds based on paper shopping bags.  Their individual, irregular form is created during the casting process and the woodcrete is made up from a mixture of concrete and wood fibres which makes it lighter and a more environmentally friendly material.  The stools provide the visitor with a place to experience a contemplative moment to sit and consume the view of London, taking in its sights and sounds and presenting an alternative to the materialistic consumption prevalent in our lives today.

Visit Gitta Gschwendtner’s website – here.

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Maddison Architects designed this house in the Beaumaris suburb of Melbourne, Australia.

From the architects:

Formally, the house is split into two rectangular boxes. The black, zinc-clad southern box encloses living, kitchen and outdoor spaces, and cantilevers out beyond its ground floor enclosure to capture 270° Port Phillip Bay views. The discrete activities of the house, such as sleeping and bathing, are accommodated with the separate masonry northern wing.

Visit the website of Maddison Architects – here.

The 5 bedroom, 4 bathroom home is currently for sale through the Kay & Burton agency – here.

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German design student Anika Engelbrecht has created the Swell Vases. When the inserted balloon is filled with water, they bulge out in a variety of shapes.

Visit Anika Engelbrecht’s website – here.

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Swedish architect Mattias Ståhlbom has designed the Bottle Lamps for Zero, a lighting manufacturer based in Nybro, Sweden.

The painted diecast aluminium lamps have shades made of opal matt acrylic, and come in pendant, table, and floor versions.

Visit Mattias Ståhlbom’s website – here.   Visit Zero’s website – here.

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ARTechnic Architects have designed the Shell Villa, located in Nagano, Japan.

Visit the website of ARTechnic Architects – here.

Read a detailed description of the house after the photos…

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Steelcase, the manufacturer of the i2i Chair, which was introduced at the 2008 NeoCon tradeshow, has announced that it will finally be available in March 2009.

The much anticipated chair was developed through the collaboration between design consultancy IDEO and the Steelcase Design Studio.

From IDEO:

In researching the needs of a growing number of collaborative settings, Steelcase identified an opportunity at the intersection of task and lounge seating. IDEO was engaged to physically exemplify this opportunity space with a chair that promotes movement, provides long-term comfort through automatic and intuitive adjustments, and supports multiple postures.

Working closely with the Steelcase Design Studio, the team pursued an idea for a chair free of mechanical adjustments that would automatically support body movements, allowing users to focus on the people around them and the tasks at hand.

Named for the collaboration it enables, the i2i chair supports a variety of postures, including sideways, reclining, perching, and leaning. i2i has a dual swivel mechanism that allows users to swivel the seat and back independently. In doing so, users are able to maintain eye contact while changing postures and, thus, stay engaged.

Visit IDEO’s website – here.   Visit the Steelcase website – here.

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Viteo, an Austrian designer/producer of outdoor furniture, has collaborated with the manufacturer Concreto to produce the Cementum collection.

From Viteo:

The new Cementum Collection marks a further systematic development in VITEO’s design vocabulary: here, the art of reducing furniture to its essentials is practised right down to the simplest of cubic shapes! This time around, light grey concrete components at ground level feature a lightweight construction and set a new tone in the design of outdoor areas.

Visit Viteo’s website – here.   Visit Concreto’s website – here.

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The Newton Coffee Table, by Swedish designers Dan Sunaga and Staffan Holm, was awarded The Nordic Design Prize during the 2009 Stockholm Furniture Fair.

Bended laminated wood is one of the basic materials used in the furniture industry. The Nordic Design prize for wooden furniture made by compressure molding was founded in 1983 with the aim of increasing the interest for this technique.

The Newton Coffee Table is being produced by Karl Andersson & Söner.

Visit Dan Sunaga’s website – here.  Visit Staffan Holm’s website – here.

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