Italian furniture brand DePadova has opened its first US showroom in New York City, where products are presented alongside items from its parent company Boffi and sister label MA/U Studio.

The DePadova store spans 4,000 square feet (371 square metres) across the third floor of a historic building, which boasts high ceilings and large windows, on a corner plot on Greene Street in Soho.

The brand is expanding into the US, after it was acquired by Italian kitchen and bath company Boffi in 2015.

DePadova products were previously showcased in the Boffi store down the street, but the new flagship offers the opportunity to display the furniture in a space that better represents the wider company.

Boffi designs – as well as items by Copenhagen-based MA/U Studio, which the group bought last year – are also shown in the new DePadova store.

“The opening marks the establishment of the brand’s very own headquarters, as its products were previously integrated in the Boffi Soho showroom just a few blocks away,” said a statement from De Padova.

Italian architect and designer Piero Lissoni – who serves as art director for the brands – worked with Boffi’s design team on the interior of the store, which opened May 2018.

Brick walls, old pillars, and exposed pipes – all of which are painted white – create a bright backdrop and spacious atmosphere for the showroom.

In keeping with this minimal shell, original light wood floors also allow the furniture pieces to pop.

The showroom is designed to resemble a renovated apartment, where contemporary and more traditional pieces in pale tones and natural colours are combined.

“DePadova’s sleek style reflects the rise of Nordic design in luxury residences in New York,” said the brand’s statement.

Throughout the showroom, a variety of dining and seating nooks help to make the space feel similar to a home. In each, statement furniture by DePadova and Boffi is integrated with the modular and versatile designs by MA/U Studio.

In one corner, an oatmeal-coloured sectional sofa overlooks windows and sits on an oversized navy rug. Adjacent, a kitchen with white cabinetry conceals a stainless steel counter and sink.

Various see-through bookshelves divide the open-plan showroom, creating more intimate spaces. One unit is lined with books, and forms a backdrop for a long dining-cum-work table accompanied by caramel leather chairs.

“We look forward to introducing the DePadova collection to the dynamic design community in New York and feel that DePadova’s products offer broad appeal to design-minded homeowners in the area,” said Boffi Group CEO, Roberto Gavazzi.

DePadova was founded in 1956 by Maddalena and Fernando De Padova in Milan, where they opened a small store to sell imported Scandinavian furniture.

Over the decades, DePadova began producing its own collections, as the brand has grown to encompass a large portfolio. It has collaborated with several well-known designers, including Nendo, Patricia Urquiola and Monica Forster.

Soho is full of stores opened by European furniture brands, like Tom Dixon, Menu and Arper, which are all hoping to capitalise on the booming US design market.

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New York designer Nik Bentel has reimagined the humble chalk stick as toys in various shapes so that budding artists and architects can draw hatching, dots and circle patterns.

Bentel, who grew up in a family of architects, developed the Chalk Drawers set as a playful way for children to engage with architecture and design.

Currently on display in the store at New York’s New Museum, the collection comprises three unusually shaped versions of the typically cylindrical tool. Each creates markings based on those found in architectural drawings: hatching, circles and dots.

“The chalk drawers are architectural drawing toys made entirely out of chalk,” said Bentel in a statement. “They are designed to create original patterns that are geometrically precise.”

“The reason for this is to give the user tools to create the three fundamental building blocks of drawing,” he added.

Among the collection is the Circle Drawer, shaped like a spinning top with ridged sides. It is designed to be rotated across a blackboard to create five concentric lines.

The spines of the Line Drawer are splayed so that its marking is more like a squiggle. Bentel said that this tool could also be used to draw musical staff lines.

Bobbles protrude across the surface of the round Dot Drawer so that when it is rolled over a surface it makes dotted patterns, similar to those attributed to concrete in architectural drawings.

Bentel first modelled the trio of chalk implements on a computer, and then 3D-printed the designs. From these he created urethane moulds, into which the chalk mixture is poured inside and left to set. The moulds then separate into two parts to release the finished product.

“Chalk is a widely available material that has been in use for thousands of years,” said the designer, who has also launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund wider production of the toys. “Just about every shape and use has been tried with chalk.”

“In order to reimagine an original use, I had to reimagine its structure through modern manufacturing techniques, such as 3D printing,” he added. “There was also a good amount of manual postproduction work that went into getting the designs perfect.”

The Chalk Drawers were created by Bentel as part of his residency at the New Museum’s design incubator, New Inc. He also recently tried to pass off his naked body as a furniture collection in another experiment, while previous project involved chewing pieces of wood to create a functional stool.

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I have this habit of charging my phone in the car and placing it my cupholder (the only convenient place to put it) while I’m driving. It doesn’t matter if I use a stock cable or aftermarket edition, it inevitably ends up wearing down because of the stress placed on the connector. The internal wiring becomes exposed and voila! I eventually have to replace it a few times a year.

If you’re like me and have a similar problem with wearing down your charging cables, you too could use a USB93 in your life! It’s the world’s first unbreakable USB cable. It also features a uniquely designed rotating-ball connector that swings 90° in 3 directions so you never have to worry about stress being placed on the delicate ends. This in combination with its nylon braiding ensure that it’s long-lasting and that you never have to waste time and money replacing worn out cables!

Designer: Alisa Miroshnyk

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World’s first Unbreakable USB cable. 90° rotation in 3 directions, fast charging & tangle-free.

USB93 uses a unique rotating ball design inspired by robots used by NASA, Boston Dynamics and world over. The simple yet extremely functional design allows full range of movement which takes the stress off the cable connection hence prolonging cable life and providing options to use your device in the most comfortable way possible.

USB93 uses nylon braiding so you get a tangle-free experience, giving you more time on untangling things that really matter.

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Dinara Kasko is a former architect who became interested in patisserie. Putting her 3D skills to use, Kasko began designing cakes with unlikely shapes–“I like sharp, straight lines,” she writes–and using a 3D printer to create cakes molds to realize her visions.

Eventually she ditched architecture altogether, and now spends her time creating these:

You can buy molds of Kasko’s designs here.

By now you crazy college kids have had time to settle in to your Fall Semester ’18, and your dorm room is starting to feel like home. But the curious among you must wonder: How does your dorm room stack up against the dorms from other design schools? In this series we’ll take a look at what each school offers.

First up: RISD housing for first-year students.

If you’re a freshman at RISD, you’re housed at one of six buildings in The Quad. This is regardless of what major you’ll eventually choose, so those of you planning to go into ID will be rubbing shoulders with the scum from inferior majors like Architecture, Photography and Animation.

All students have access to laundry facilities (even though we all know that Fine Arts majors don’t even do laundry), access to a kitchen (that the slobs from Animation will slowly destroy), shared bathrooms (which Fashion/Apparel folks will clutter with an appalling amount of product), work lounges (as if those lazy Photography people ever do any actual work), and a living room with sofas and a flatscreen TV. This latter one is important: Fighting over access to the remote control to the flatscreen will help first-year students build the social skills needed to navigate future contentious design firm meetings, where you must fight for what you believe in while figuring out how to pin the blame on others if the show turns out to suck.

You can have a single room if you prefer to smell your own farts, but if you enjoy the variety of many people’s farts you can also get a shared room.

Single Rooms offer:

– an “extra long” twin bed
– a dresser
– a desk
– a chair
– only yourself to blame when you lose something

For a 360-degree view of a Single Room, click here.

Shared Rooms (Double, Triple or Quad) offer:

– an “extra long” twin bed (for each student)
– a dresser or closet space (for each student)
– a desk (for each student)
– a chair (for each student)
– up to three other people that you can blame when you misplace your things and assume they have been stolen

For a 360-degree view of a Shared Room, click up above on the Single Room link and use your imagination. Because there was no 360-degree view of a Shared Room available at press time.

There are six dorms available in the Quad. Here are the floorplans and square footages for each:

Carpenter House

The Carpenter House conveniently offers two staircases, so that you’ve got a choice of which stairwell to sit and cry in after your high school sweetheart breaks up with you because s/he met somebody that’s like you but taller and better-looking at whatever college they decided to go to.

East Hall

As you can see, East Hall is much larger and can hold many more students to share a bathroom with, offering you ample opportunity to secretly try other people’s shampoos while jealously guarding your own.

Homer Hall

The relatively towering Homer Hall has a much more classical college dorm configuration, with orderly, repetitive room configurations. Communal bathrooms provide the opportunity to overhear gossip while you’re in a toilet stall. You’ll also learn to avoid that one shower stall that always seems gross in comparison to the others, favored by some hairy person who always clogs the drain.

Nickerson Hall

Like Homer Hall, Nickerson features long, communal balconies that only students living on the south side of the building have access to. This is the perfect spot for Southies to congregate and discuss how lame Northies are.

Pardon Miller House

Compared to the dense Homer and Nickelson Halls, Pardon Miller is a smaller structure consisting of only shared rooms, no singles. Loner-types who wind up in Pardon Miller can form the annoying habit of sighing and rolling their eyes every time one of their roommates walks in.

South Hall

Unlike Pardon Miller, South Hall offers single rooms–and even single basement rooms, for those who want to live both alone and below the surface of the earth.

The upper floors offer relatively massive suites with up to four rooms sharing two bathrooms, giving you the opportunity to decide: Are you the kind of person that uses up all the toilet paper and doesn’t load up a fresh roll afterwards? If so, do you feel good about yourself?

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Note: If you’re a RISD freshman that has anything to add–factoids, experiences, photos, videos–please let us know in the comments!