Hasta La Ideas

Product news: London architect Zaha Hadid has designed a limited edition of marble tables.

Created by Zaha Hadid for Italian natural stone company Citco, the tables come in three shapes and are available in Black Marquina or Bianco di Covelano with a gold vein.

The collection will be presented at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan next month from 9 to 14 April.

Hadid will also present a design for auditorium seats in Milan as part of an exhibition of her work called Multiplicities.

Click above for larger image

See more design by Zaha hadid »
See more table design »
See more launches at Milan 2013 »

The post Tables by Zaha Hadid
for Citco appeared first on Dezeen.

Product news: what appear to be black lines drawn on a wall are in fact 3D clothes rails designed by Canadian studio +tongtong.

Seemingly two-dimensional when viewed straight on, the horizontal clothes rails are supported by bars angled out from the wall.

The black welded-steel bars cast geometric shadows onto nearby surfaces, creating the illusion of more volumes.

The collection by +tongtong contains eleven pieces including a full-length mirror, a wall-mounted sideboard with glass shelf and a ceiling-hung rack.

Eight freestanding units have rubber feet and wall bumpers so they rest against the wall and require no screws.

Pieces are available to order in matte black, white powder coating or polished chrome versions.

We featured similar graphic shapes that pull out from the wall to form a table or clothes rail last month.

Photography is by Colin Faulkner.

See all our stories about coat hook design »

The post Les Ailes Noires
by +tongtong appeared first on Dezeen.

Product news: Austrian designer Thomas Feichtner has steam-bent and laminated wood to create a chair for Czech furniture brand TON.

The legs and back rest are steam-bent into shape by clamping cylindrical wooden poles in metal moulds at the same factory that Thonet‘s iconic bent-wood chairs were made.

The laminated-wood seat shells are supported underneath by two braces, which also connect the legs.

Three bent poles form the legs and back support for the seat, with the option of adding a fourth rod with six kinks that wraps round the chair to form armrests.

Feichtner‘s chairs were named for their likeness to the plastic seats on the trams in Prague.

Colours available include dark, natural or white in a range of woods, with potential to add cloth or leather upholstery.

TON will present the chairs in Milan this April, where Zaha Hadid will debut auditorium seats and Werner Aisslinger’s gradated chairs will also be on show.

Thomas Feichtner has also designed a chair with the seat suspended in a cubic oak frame and a chandelier with a single crystal, which he describes in this movie we filmed.

See all our stories about chair design »
See all our stories about designs by Thomas Feichtner »

Thomas Feichtner sent us the following information:

Tram Chair

Furniture producer TON is a piece of Czech-Austrian industrial and design history—as well as one of the world’s oldest furniture producers. It was back in 1861 that the Viennese entrepreneur Michael Thonet established a factory to produce his synonymous bentwood furniture in Bistritz am Hostein (today’s Bystřice pod Hostýnem), in what is now the Czech Republic. This was to be Thonet’s largest furniture production site. The company was nationalized one year after the conclusion of the Second World War. During the socialist era that ensued, it was called “Továrna ohýbaného nábytku.” The initials of this name, which translates as “Factory for Bentwood Furniture,” still appear today in the brand’s logo. TON was established as a design brand as part of the company’s restructuring after the fall of the Iron Curtain. Despite having numerous political upheavals and changing ownership structures, bentwood furniture production has continued right up to the present day—without interruption and even still using some of the original machines and molds. Except for felling the trees, the entire production process—from raw timber to finished product—takes place in-house.

TON today is producing contemporary (and frequently award-winning) furniture in collaboration with established Czech and foreign designers. This way TON is giving the place of 150 years of bentwood production its honour back.

The Tram Chair arose from the TON’s most recent collaboration with the established Vienna-based product designer Prof. Thomas Feichtner. Feichtner’s concept is strongly inspired by the company’s time-honored production processes: first by the company’s own plant for the production of seat shells from moulded wood, and second by its longstanding factory for the production of classic bentwood. The intention was to unite the methods used to produce bentwood and moulded wood for the first time in a single product, thus building a bridge between traditional and contemporary furniture design. Even just the way in which the bentwood braces are connected indicates the finished product’s origin. On the other hand, the Tram Chair also features a few constructional innovations. The support for the seat shell, for instance, does double-duty as a connection between the legs. The chair thus needs no further bracing, in contrast to classic bentwood models. Though this chair’s design is quite deliberate, its name came about as more of an accident. Employees of TON were quick to jokingly dub this model the “tram chair” due to its similarity to the plastic seats on the trams in Prague. Feichtner then decided to keep this charming working title as the product’s name.

The Tram Chair will see its first public presentation at the 2013 Milan Furniture Fair. It will be offered for sale with and without armrests, with cloth or leather upholstery, and in various colors and types of wood.

The post Tram Chair by Thomas Feichtner
for TON appeared first on Dezeen.

Product news: the lids of these pans by New York designer Karim Rashid have large, brightly coloured hooks for handles.

The lid handles fold over so they can be grasped easily and latch onto a rail system mounted on the kitchen wall.

The handles of the black aluminium pans have holes in and sit under the lids when stored away, allowing them to hang together from the same rail.

Unveiled by Italian cookware brand TVS at Ambiente 2013 in Frankfurt last month, the cooking set includes a frying pan, sauté pan and sauce pan, all with a choice of handle colours.

New York designer Karim Rashid has also designed a sofa with modular arms and headrest and renovated the metro station for the University of Naples.

See all our stories about designs by Karim Rashid »
See all our stories about homeware design »

Here’s some more information from TVS:

Hook by Karim Rashid

“The kitchen is the busiest room in any house and contemporary architecture is increasingly making it a feature point, a reception area in the home. This is why the cookware range needs to and can be integrated as a part of the design progress, going on to become the true focus of the room as well as representing the heart and soul of the person who uses it every day.”

He has travelled the highly imaginative universe of “the pan that isn’t there” on a mission for TVS. Karim Rashid, legendary design star with ambitions to change the world (one of the most prolific minds of our time, with over 2000 industrialised designs for interiors, fashions, furnishings, lighting, art and music) that go straight to the heart of our emotions.

And moving on from the simple axiom above, in which today’s new humanism sets the home at the centre of our personal universe – and makes the kitchen the pulsing heart of the home – the result is a curious, irresistible Captain Hook.

Yes, Hook. That is the name of the brilliant new invention by TVS, which has transformed high-gauge aluminium into a complete range of exclusive cookware, with a rich communication potential.

A jaw-dropping effect, created by hanging the pans from the wall using the patented hanging rail and hooks plus eccentric handles in a mix of colours to contrast with the body of the pans. A range that is young at heart, built to be at the centre of any dj – sorry, cooking – set.

Essential, young looking and handy. With its magnetic feel, Hook connects to our lifestyle, bringing with it a large dose of good humour. Space problems are solved and really, all it is missing is a “share” button. TVS fans, modern Peter Pans flying over their lives with the gift of ubiquity, mp3 player in their ears and a wooden spoon in place of a sword, will be thanking Karim as they go.

The post Hook pans by Karim Rashid
for TVS appeared first on Dezeen.

Product news: items in this furniture range by Paris-based designer Arik Levy have wooden bases inspired by traditional Japanese footwear.

Arik Levy modelled the elevated solid oak bases of the sideboards and sofas on geta sandals, which are made of flat planks raised on wooden teeth.

Modular sideboards come in different configurations of cupboards, shelves and drawers and can be customised with a range of timbers, veneers and painted lacquers.

Geta seating systems are also modular, available as an armchair or sofa with foam and fibre cushions plus optional storage arms or tables.

The furniture range is currently in production with British brand Modus and will be shown at Edit by designjunction in Milan next month.

Other designs to be released in Milan include twisting auditorium seats by Zaha Hadid and PearsonLloyd’s stacking chairs with colourful legs.

Arik Levy has also designed an installation that uses body movements to mutate computer-generated crystals and a pebble-shaped device for opening water bottles.

See all our stories about furniture design »
See all our stories about design by Arik Levy »

The post Geta furniture range by Arik Levy
for Modus appeared first on Dezeen.