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Description from the designers:

ISOLA is a new typology of armchair. A furniture design for today, where we are constantly connected to the internet via laptops, tablets, smartphones and other portable devices.

While using these devices in many public or semi-private situations, we noticed that seating postures change. People tend to lounge around, seeking unconventional positions and generally sitting in a more relaxed fashion.

As a response to this, we designed a wide and roomy seat-shell with a gently-organic shape lacking an obvious direction. Combined with an integrated, oval tabletop, Isola moves away from other more rigid solutions and encourages more open and intuitive use.

Of course, having the small table close at hand makes for a very practical place to rest your (analogue) book, glass of wine, or a bite to eat too.

Visit the Tacchini website – here.

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Visit the Studio Vision website – here.

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Description from the designer:

Structural comfort and thoughtful use of materials are at the heart of this piece. All the necessary joints of a chair are distilled into one component. The stainless steel component allows the chair to stack and provides a measure of spring to the user.

Visit Andrew Perkins’ website – here.

Photography by Mark Serr

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Description from the designer:

BLUSH is a unique lounge chair that aims at stimulating the senses.

Working from the concept of haptic design (design that stimulate the sense of touch), BLUSH has a contrasting and playful appearance that invites the user to explore the materials, construction and comfortability. The chair consists of a faceted hard aluminium shell in which a perforated pattern has been laser-cut. Using a brush binding technique, the holes are upholstered with strips of hand printed felt. This results in a soft and tactile front upholstery and a pixel-like upholstered back.

Overall BLUSH has a surprisingly austere expression that is softened by the blushing felt loops that flourish across the chair.

Visit Sofie Brünner’s website – here.

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SAPPHIRE offers a mesmerizing pattern that is both contemplative and playful. The character of Markus Johansson’s exclusive cabinet is both tough and brave, and sapphire will thrive alone as well as in company offering a reassuring and original centerpiece for both home and contract. Sapphire is made out of two mirrored door halves that can be positioned freely in order to enhance different kinds of constellations. The cabinet are CNC-cut in MDF to have an exact fit and the undercarriage is made out of birch.

Visit Markus Johansson’s website – here.

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Visit the Bounce website – here.

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O’Hara Studio is proud to present its new collection of contemporary, sculptural furniture. O’Hara Studio was founded by Sean and Cynthia O’Hara, both graduates of Rhode Island School of Design. Sean is an established designer working for such companies as Steuben, Nambe and Dansk, while Cynthia is an  insider  in  the  high-end  furnishings  industry.  Now  they  have  combined  their  keen  artistic  and  business sensibilities to bring these sculpted furniture designs to life.

Sean is recognized as an accomplished artisan designer with a sculptural approach. With the tools he invented himself, unique construction methods and his hand sculpting techniques, he translates inspiring natural influences; water patterns, coastlines, aquatic life and rock formations into fluid, sensuous shapes. Sean sculpts and refines his designs until they are perfect and then travels to his partner’s workshop in Indonesia to teach a small group of master craftsman how to reproduce the designs. For Sean, designing furniture is all about conveying the sense of touch into the finished piece, inviting people to use not only their eyes but their hands when viewing his design; he explains, “Tactile relations with my designs are crucial to my process. My creativity peaks when I am in the workshop, covered in dust, sculpting with chisel or rasp in hand. Touch is a powerful sense that guides me, which is distinctive in the design world.”

Visit the O’Hara Studio website – here.

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Visit Mattis Esnault’s website – here.

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Description from the designer:

This investigation challenges the way that people view, participate with and value everyday objects through creating interactions that can be described as surprising, memorable, enjoyable, light-hearted and even exhilarating when compared with mass market equivalents.

Sprung, in addition, challenges the conventions associated with a seat’s appearance, structure and use by integrating two materials in the seat pan that are not generally combined in the field of furniture design – elastic cord with a flat plastic sheet.

When sat in Sprung provides unexpected and enjoyable sensations for both the user and observers. The 2-dimesional plastic sheet seat flexes into a 3-dimensional springy form, offering a dynamic ongoing bouncing motion.

Designed as a limited edition object, Sprung incorporates 65 metres of hand-stitched elastic shock cord. Currently Computer Numeric Control (CNC) stitching processes are being explored as an automated alternative to the limited edition original for commercialisation.

Visit Jason Klenner’s website – here.

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Description from Arik Levy:

Working on the Stream sofa was a wonderful experience combining passion, relationship and great manufacturing. Stream is not just another Sofa for me. It is a platform to meet and connect. Like a river that streams, the sofa will swing around the space creating a kind of micro architecture within the room.

One feels hugged and contained looking in or away from the seating area. Very comfortable seating height, various backrest heights and add on pillows permit easy adaptations to everybody’s personal comfort.

A large number of configurations within a flexible system gives every owner the possibility to grow the set as the changes in the living area may take place. But I also wanted to create a color and texture landscape with this product. The structural part of the seat can be covered with one material or color and the seating pillow and backrest with a different one. The proportions, size and composition animate the space elegantly. Last but not least the container box underneath the side table is a great storage space.

Visit the Palau website – here.

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Description from BoConcept:

The Ottawa Collection includes a complete dining room set with table, chairs, sideboard and cabinet.  A light-hearted line of accessories complements the set, creating an entire environment for urbanites.

The minimalist but never ordinary style offers unique features and precise detailing that make each piece hard to resist.  The dining table features a soft slanting under-skirting and leg clusters that make it welcoming.  Inspired by nature, the dining chair celebrates the welcome simplicity of the leaf that creates an elegant cross-table profile when pushed in, and like the table, sits on a forest of legs, perfect for tucking in your feet.  The sideboard has sensual and intuitive handles that are really functional eye candy. Colorful inserts can be used to customize the handles and ends of the sideboard piece.

The cabinet has large graphic easy-to-use handles that add a whimsical element and come in two colors, oak or green. Together, the pieces create an urban environment that is smart and savvy.

Accessories that complete the line include a bold black and white fingerprint rug created to speak about the “new global uniqueness where we are all empowered to express our individuality”, suggests Rashid.

A cheerful color palette of puzzle shaped vases, a futuristic bright orange pendant lamp, a coordinating glass touch lamp with the same bright orange cord, a hand-made aluminum bowl designed to form a pattern, and a set of originally designed cups, espresso cups and rimmed saucers that celebrate
Rashid’s art.

Visit the BoConcept website – here.

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Description from the designer:

Inspiration for this two-piece furniture was an object from everyday life: The bottle corks. Simple and aesthetically it rotates out of the bottle, and simple and aesthetically should be the principle of “SCREW”.

Obvisiously, “Screw” is based on the principle of screwing. The new interpretation of the screw makes the height adjustment self-explanatory and easy. By the apparent leadership of the screw thread, the refined combination comes into focus. Made from a high-quality steel pipe, the frame is an exciting contrast to the cork material from which the body is made. The massive Korkzylinder is light in this combination and because of its unique features provides a comfortable seating experience.

Visit Manuel Welsky’s website – here.

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Description from the designers:

“We wanted to design a compact but comfortable “family” of sofas that harked back to classic soft furniture styles – especially to the post WW2 period”.

SNOOPY’s sculptural language is simple and clear. There are just two elements – a horizontal “pillow” for a seat and a vertical “duvet” at the back that wraps around the seat, embracing it from the sides.

Upholstery details – marked piping is used to accentuate its shape in a natural way, giving it an easily recognizable design “signature”.

Visit the ISKOS — BERLIN website – here.

Visit the Versus website – here.

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Description from Walter Knoll:

Spacious and round. It’s the curves that make Bao appealing on first sight. A sumptuous sculpture with an artistic back. In the style of a leather ball, the leather patchwork forms the rear. Flowing lines – sweeping and elegant. The swivelling armchair combines the materials whilst keeping them distinct: leather on the back, fabric in the seat. Everything has its place. Bao – as familiar as a welcoming embrace.

Visit the Walter Knoll website – here.

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SleepBox represents a contemporary and organic piece of furniture, designed for the demands of an increasingly urbanized environment. A sinuous life-sized object which creates a place of comfort and relaxation within airports, offices or other semi-public spaces, providing peace and quiet in busy urban environments. The solid, smooth and uniform shell is made of HI-MACS, and contains a leather covered mattress.

The project was designed by Caspar Lohner at the Chair for Computer Aided Architectural Design [CAAD], Department of Architecture, ETH Zurich, supervised by Mathias Bernhard and Manuel Kretzer and produced in collaboration with Kläusler Acrylstein AG, who is the exclusive distributor for HI-MACS® in Switzerland.

The free-form shell is made from HI-MACS®, the architect choose the material thanks to its extraordinary properties: it’s extremely robust, but it can be thermoformed and visually seamlessly connected – which was essential for this project.

Caspar Lohner was in charge of each stage – from design to fabrication – of his first project using Solid Surfaces. He was both managing the project but also producing it with a team of students from the Department of Architecture, ETH Zurich with constant assistance of Kläusler Acrylstein, who supported with their expertise and technical resources. “Every day was a challenge for me, but when something didn’t work, we tried and tried again until it was resolved. I learnt a lot about HI-MACS® fabrication possibilities thanks to this project” says the designer.

The necessary MDF moulds were produced on a three axis CNC milling machine at ETH Zürich’s in-house facilities Raplab. The flat HI-MACS sheets then were thermoformed into shape using a vacuum membrane press. After the material cools down it exhibits the same properties as before and can be further processed in a similar way to wood. The eleven individual pieces were finally glued together to create a single seamless homogeneous object.

SleepBox will be exhibited from 17th to 21th January at Swissbau 2012.

Design: Caspar Lohner
Fabrication: Kläusler Acrylstein AG
Supervision: Mathias Bernhard, Manuel Kretzer
Photos: Manuel Kretzer
Material: HI-MACS®, Nordic White 12mm

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Visit Matthias Pliessnig’s website – here.

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Description from the designer:

For Glenmorangie, we were requested to create a sculptural piece for the launch of Glenmorangie Scotch Whisky in Taiwan & China. For this, SoundForm FLUID was conceived as a concrete visualization of the wavelength generated in pouring a liquid into a crystal glass.

The idea for the Glenmorangie work, SoundForm FLUID, is a development of my studios’ research in the manner in which sound can be conveyed and transformed into a tangible object.  The intention behind the SoundForm series is that they are seen as a visual poetry, where the representation of sound conveys an intended meaning or effect.

SoundForm FLUID originated through the visuals of the audio recording of sound created by the pouring of liquid into a crystal glass, where the subsequent graph, or sonogram, recording was used as a base profile, or visual, instigating the geometry.

In this work, you have the movement of the pouring of the liquid which creates this languid, rhythmic motion, the reaction between the glass and the liquid and then, the resulting stillness as it settles.

At each stage of the creation process, revisions, alterations and adjustments were carried out to allow for the realization. In the fabrication, we had to resolve demanding technical issues to do with the complex compound curves of the design, as well as developing new techniques for the finishing, which is a powder coating of 2 different colours – a fascinating challenge that required a new approach.

Primarily this is about a sculptural form and the function as a bar is secondary to this. The entire process began as a purely sculptural concept – ink lines drawn on a roll of trace as an interpretation of the wavelengths recorded in the act of pouring the liquid into a crystal glass. The utilitarian or design aspect is something added to it at the discretion of the person interacting with it.

Watch a video about the SoundForm FLUID bar – here.

Visit Philip Michael Wolfson’s website – here.

Photography by Todd Selby

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The Woonling Collection is a furniture concept that explores changing living- and room situations. Just like living organisms the green algae inspired cushions can build various structures. T-squares, flat connectors and furniture feet can be plugged in the ports between each of the radial facets. First there is one cushion which can be used as an ottoman. By embedding feet it becomes a taboret. A set of two cushions results in an easy chair. This can be multiplied to a sofa which grows to a longer sofa, for a bigger family.

Visit Karoline Fesser’s website – here.

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Description from Rianne Koens:

Inspired by the hospitality of my Turkish in-laws, I came up with this cabinet, which is an elegant replacement for the stackable stools in western households.

Oturakast consist of separate drawers. Each drawer has its own foldable legs. Therefore they are easily transformed into lovely stools for the guest.

Visit Rianne Koens’ website – here.

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