Hasta La Ideas

Danish designer Maria Bruun has created a trio of modular cabinets on spindly legs that nestle together to resemble an alien from Space Invaders.

Each piece in the Invader Storage System is on wheels, making it easy to move them around.

Drawers and cupboards can be stacked in different arrangements and slotted together.

The body of each cabinet is rectilinear, but the feet are shaped like pyramids.

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Here’s the description from the designer:

Invader Storage System

Globalization is upon us, more and more people pilgrimage to the various metropolises of the world. As a result we are forced to live closer and closer to each other in smaller spaces. This also creates a new demand to our furniture where designers are forced to create products that allow the compressed lifestyle of modern consumers.

They say: ‘home is where the heart is’ but in my research I discovered that ‘home is where your stuff is’.

When I created Invader I visited 30 private homes for conversations and registrations on ‘how do people really live, and what constitutes ‘home’ for them’. During this process it became clear to me that people, however small they live, always have a collection of objects from around the world, favourite books, loving memories, and practicalities following them on their journey in life.

Through all their collected items people stage and identify ‘who they are’ or ‘who they want to be’ to the world.

Invader is a series of storage furniture with a focus on maximum flexibility for its user. Its modular flexibility, and construction on wheels creates a multiple of spatial solutions, and fills the need for both hidden and open storage.

The light long-legged aesthetic makes us question gravity and strength of the wooden legs, but a metal core in the construction provides maximal strength and allows the clean and simple, almost rigorous character of the furniture to stand out.

The stackable storage modules have a variation of three sizes and three basic functions; the drawer, the cabinet, and the surface. These three functions are the basic storage needs. A cabinet or drawer where we can hide the things that we do not want the world to see and a surface where we can stage the objects and stories we want the world to see.

The piece is inspired by its users needs and ways of living. How do we tell stories and stage our life and identity though our storage and collected objects? The project revolves around individual ways of living, collecting and creating what constitutes “home”.

The post Invader Storage System
by Maria Bruun appeared first on Dezeen.

The new Swedish furniture line bears its own interpretation of Scandinavian design

The Scandinavian obsession with hallmarks of quality, attention to detail and hand-craft is embedded in the psyche of the region’s people. Recent years have seen a return to the core ideals of its design-minded countries—Finland, Denmark and Sweden—as each redevelops its own distinct national identity. For interpretations of its native style, Sweden can now look to Stockholm-based furniture brand Snickeriet, an offshoot of the carpentry workshop of the same name. Much like fellow Swedish company Zweed, the Snickeriet collection aims to bring its designers and craftsman closer together. While the original Snickeriet will continue its existing commission business, the new venture opens up a higher level of craftsmanship to a younger audience with a zesty, provocative visual aesthetic and an unusual stand-alone approach to building a design collection.

“As a designer or woodsman you’re always looking for projects outside your comfort zone,” explains founder Karl-Johan Hjerling. “The workshop is at the center of everything we plan to do with the new enterprise—from concept to production, all kept in the hands of pure craft. We can let each idea develop in a very pure form, seeking solutions as the need arises and solve them in-house.”

Production is handled by artisans Gunnar Dahl and Karolina Stenfelt, who have already been significantly recognized in Sweden for notable pieces for TAF architects, Byredo perfumes and Note Design’s jawdropping Soot. Rounding out the Snickeriet team are Hjerling and his design partner Karin Wallenbeck, who have cropped up recently with work for the likes of Swedish stalwarts Svenskt Tenn and Acne.

In keeping with the one-off approach to its commission work, Snickeriet will create each piece as a single unit, rather than as part of a series or ongoing collection. “Advanced cabinet-making is often associated with ‘older’ furniture and classical aesthetics. We want to preserve this of course but also develop it and apply it to new forms of expression,” says Dahl.

The initial four pieces—Havet, Frank, Verk and Fä (Sea, Frank, Work and Beast)—make expressive statements in this vein, boasting the kind of workmanship that pays homage to the roots of Swedish craft and exemplary skill while infusing each piece with an exciting, adventurous design narrative.

An undulating, tactile piece, Havet’s dark exterior hides a contrasting, clean inlay demonstrating perfectly Snickeriet’s old-meets-new approach. The hacked, waved exterior is as painterly as it is sculptural.

Frank offers a slightly humorous take on the cupboard, certainly not a piece for the fainthearted but one which, like the brand itself, is not afraid to wear a sleeve of hearts. Laser-cut and etched plexiglass with brass detailing straddles a clean oiled maple frame.

Slim and athletic, the suspended Verk desk plays on proportional form. Poised on sharp steel legs the Verk also shows off a contrasting inlay.

Rounding off the initial offering is Fä, the Beast lamp, which perhaps takes its name from the leather used in its construction. The richly lacquered pendant manages to convey simplicity and opulence at once.

Snickeriet launches 10 May 2012 at Nitty Gritty, which will show the pieces through the end of the month.

Here’s another project by Slovakian designer Peter Jakubik (see his Hobby Panton Chair in yesterday’s story), this time a cabinet with a chalkboard surface.

The Primary Cabinet is a piece of furniture for children and provides users with the ability to alter its appearance as and when they desire.

More furniture on Dezeen »

Here’s a tiny bit of text from the designer:

Primary Cabinet – Draw own design

A storage cabinet created by young European designer. Peter Jakubik seeks an inspiration in the trend of “open source” with the possibility of endless variations of the final product. An Appearance of the product can user set easily as changing colour of the monitor background in your netbook.

See also:

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Stuff by Marina Ralph	2440×1220, Saw, Assemble by Pål Rodenius	Hobby Panton chair by Peter Jakubik