The Italian lighting manufacturer Axo Light has introduced the Bell Lamp.
With its oversized design, the Bell Lamp was created to focus on the needs of interior designers of large spaces. Featuring a metal structure covered in ribbons of super-smooth, fireproof sponge fabric, the Bell Lamp is available in ten different colours.
Visit the Axo Light website – here.
Architect Kyu Sung Woo designed this house in Vermont for him and his family.
The site on the southwestern slope of Putney Mountain is characterized by heavily wooded terrain, large outcroppings of ledge, and dramatic sweeping views. Three clearings in the woods frame the approach to the house from the east and open up the site to the surrounding landscape. The house consists of three simple volumes arranged around a large outcropping of exposed ledge. A living volume faces the western mountains, sleeping quarters face a southern meadow, and a shed volume houses storage and mechanical equipment.
Visit the website of Kyu Sung Woo Architects – here.
At ICFF 2009, we met James Coombes and Dominique Gonfard, the founders of Lerival, which is a new web-based store dedicated to selling furniture designed by architects. One of their first pieces is the Infinity Bench from Paris based architect Carl Fredrik Svenstedt.
The organic shape of this bench / table / recliner is the result of clever mathematics. The rings are serial, concentric hoops, like the layers of an onion, cut from less than 3.4 m² of flat furniture-grade plywood using CNC technology. The variations in diameter of the rings create a structurally stable, undulating sequence.
Visit the Lerival website – here. Visit Carl Fredrik Svenstedt’s website – here.
At ICFF 2009, the Rhode Island School of Design’s Department of Furniture Design presented Immaterialize, a showcase of student furniture and products that emphasize specific qualities of materials rather than their most familiar applications.
As part of the showcase, designer Jennifer Tran exhibited the Flow Chair, which is made of Varia ecoresin from the material supplier 3form.
Description from Jennifer Tran:
The Flow Chair was born from extensive form exploration, trial and error, and pure chance. Using a simple technique of heating plastic to a malleable state and then quickly free forming it by hand, dozens of form studies were created, each evolving slowly into a more dynamic and functional form. Beginning with molding arbitrary shapes from a flat, rectangular piece of plastic, the ongoing experimentation became informed through growing familiarity with the product. The milled surface texture of evenly spaced grooves add bold and graphic definition to the undulating, organic shape. The chair is made from 3form’s Varia Ecoresin, composed of at least 40% post-industrial recycled material. By utilizing 3form’s diverse material choices, the chair’s appearance is emboldened by contrasting surface finishes and textile laminations.
Visit Jennifer Tran’s website – here.
At ICFF 2009, we discovered that Patricia Urquiola has designed two new pieces of furniture.
She has worked with the Gaborone, Botswana based manufacturer Mabeo to create the Kika stools and the Naledi tables.
Visit the Mabeo website – here. Visit Patricia Urquiola’s website – here.
*sorry about the poor photo quality, our good camera decided to die on us, and we had to use our backup camera instead.
Dutch designers Bert van der Grift and Dennis van der Burch (bERT&dENNIS) are exhibiting three of their seating designs at the 2009 International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) in New York.
Visit the bERT&dENNIS website – here.
Italian designer Francesco Rota has created the Afra armchair for Paola Lenti.
The armchair is designed for outdoor environments, and is inspired by an overturned African basket, featuring a braid designed to provide a draining effect for quick drying.
Visit the Paola Lenti website – here. Visit Francesco Rota’s website – here.
Choi Ropiha Architects designed the Mona Vale Residence in Sydney, Australia.
Visit the Choi Ropiha Architects website – here.
Full description after the photos…..
At the 2009 International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF), Skram Furniture has debuted the Drop Stool collection by American designer Jacob Marks.
The initial release of Skram’s Drop Stool Series is a loose grouping of four pieces, bound by function and material. The Drop Stools are an exploration of volume and elemental geometry. Of the four stools, three—Corkdrop12, Corkcube14, and Corkdrop16—are made of solid, high density cork, and one, Wooddrop14, is offered in solid wood. As their names suggest, the four pieces are offered in fixed heights of 12, 14, or 16 inches.
Speaking of the inspiration for the Series, Marks says, “Cork is so easy, so forgiving, but still dense, tough and resilient. It’s renewable, water resistant, and texturally fascinating.” The material, which Marks has been experimenting with for years, is remarkable on a number of levels, and perfectly suited to the form. “I wanted to do something more playful with these,” Marks continues, “and I’ve always been a fan of the low stool. The Drop Stools are everyday furniture in the truest sense—they’re beautiful but they’re not too precious. No one is going to be afraid to use these. Around the fireplace on a winter Sunday or on the porch on a summer night—these stools are truly flexible.”
Visit the Skram website – here.
The Corkcube14:
We’re currently at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) in New York, where we spotted the new TG2 chair, designed by Thore Garbers for Wilde + Spieth.
The chair is made of fibreglass, its wide and continuous folds flow, to maximise body contact. Natural rubbers or leathers, in a range of colour combinations, are overlaid to create a chair that is equally appropriate for external or internal environments.
Construction on the Yas Hotel in Abu Dhabi, UAE, is nearing completion. Designed by the New York based Asymptote Architecture, the Yas Hotel is a 500-room, 85,000-square-meter complex.
Asymptote’s founders and partners Hani Rashid and Lise Anne Couture envisioned an architectural landmark embodying various key influences and inspirations ranging from the aesthetics and forms associated with speed, movement and spectacle to the artistry and geometries forming the basis of ancient Islamic art and craft traditions.
Hani Rashid describes the building’s design and its architecture as:
A perfect union and harmonious interplay between elegance and spectacle. The search here was inspired by what one could call the ‘art’ and poetics of motor racing, specifically Formula 1, coupled with the making of a place that celebrates Abu Dhabi as a cultural and technological tour de force.
Philippe Starck has designed the Masters chair for Kartell.
With lively sinuous lines, the Masters chair combines the outlines of three of the most famous chairs in modern design. Arne Jacobsen’s Series 7 Chair, Eero Saarinen’s Tulip Armchair, and Charles Eames’ Eiffel Chair.
Philippe Starck Says:
We weren’t born just today. There have been masters before us. The Masters chair brings to mind the lines of three great masters and three great masterpieces. Putting them all together, they create a new product, a new project, a reflection of our new society.
Visit the Kartell website – here. Visit Philippe Starck’s website – here.
Japanese designer Teruhiro Yanagihara has created the 1915 Low Table.
This set of stackable low tables was created for the exhibition ‘complementary colours’ at Milan Design Week 2009. The thin steel bars that support the structure appear to be randomly placed, but are positioned in a specific way to keep the table balanced and stable: Always two diametrical bars are orientated at an angle of 90 degrees to each other and thus compensate the forces in the structure: This principal is reflected in the applied color scheme: The bars facing each other are painted in complementary colours. Corresponding to the forces in the structure, these colours neutralise themselves: They turn to grey when mixed together, leaving the white boards hover in space.
Visit Teruhiro Yanagihara’s website – here.
Japanese designers Setsu and Shinobu Ito have created the SWA collection for FORNASARIG.
SWA is described as an individual cell to relax in. Beyond protecting you from sun and rain, it allows you to create your own private space in a public place.
Visit the Studio Ito website – here. Visit the FORNASARIG website – here.
Dubbeldam Design Architects have designed a contemporary addition and renovation to a
100-year old home, located in Toronto, Canada’s Cabbagetown neighbourhood.
Visit the Dubbeldam Design Architects’ website – here.
Full description after the photos…..
