Originally designed in 1964, the Forum seating features a hardwood frame with finger joint details and chrome-plated legs, making a feature of a part of the sofa that would usually be covered with upholstery.
The Forum sofa and armchair was originally designed in 1964
Case Furniture worked closely with the Robin and Lucienne Day Foundation to bring the Forum seating design back into production, taking care to recreate the details of the design while updating some of the material choices.
The sofa and armchair now include Dacron-wrapped foam cushions for comfort and structure, a metal-reinforced frame for strength and longevity, and solid walnut or oak instead of the tropical hardwood veneers used in the 1960s.
It features finger joint details on its wooden frame
“I grew up with my father Robin Day’s Forum,” said Robin and Lucienne Day Foundation founder, trustee and chair Paula Day. “He furnished our living room at Cheyne Walk with two Forum sofas when they first launched in the 1960s, and chose to continue using them for nearly half a century.”
“With this bold design, he challenged the convention of hiding a sofa’s timber frame under the upholstery, instead placing it on the outside to create the Forum’s handsome and unmistakable signature feature.”
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Although we have settled down in cities and residential areas, we have ironically become a little bit more nomadic these days in terms of our lifestyles. Not only is travel a staple of daily life, we also often find ourselves sitting down somewhere, either to rest or to resume work. Unfortunately, you won’t find seats everywhere, let alone ergonomic ones that will let you sit in comfort. There might even be instances where you don’t have enough chairs at home to accommodate unexpected but welcome guests. In times like those, a foldable chair would be a practical solution, and this rather unconventional design offers not only a space saving-seat but also a piece of furniture that you can conveniently carry anywhere, like a foldable umbrella.
Perhaps more than other kinds of furniture, seats like chairs, stools, and ottomans have to be extra stable in order to safely support people sitting on them. The requirements of stability and comfort are often expressed in terms of rigidity and at the cost of flexibility. That is why you’ll rarely find foldable chairs that check all the right boxes, making the Foldable Lander a wonder of design and engineering. Inspired by the lightweight and compact design of the Apollo 11 Lunar Lander as well as the material integrity of Origami techniques, this foldable chair and foldable table/ottoman offer a unique and convenient way to take a seat anywhere, whether it’s for fun or for work.
When in its collapsed form, the Foldable Lander looks almost like a slightly bulky foldable umbrella. Thanks to that design and its light 1.3 kg (2.8 lbs) weight, it is possible to carry the chair with you anywhere or stash it in a bag or in the car for longer travel times. In just 5 seconds, however, that folded structure deploys into a low chair or an ottoman that can double as a low table, and it takes half a minute only to fold it back again so that you can quickly dash to your next destination.
It’s that transforming design that makes the Foldable Lander an ideal companion anywhere you go, whether it’s to relax outdoors or to quickly drop down for a brief period of work. In fact, Foldable Lander is also ideal for living spaces where there’s not enough room for permanent chairs. You can bring the Chair and Ottoman pair anywhere you go and have a lounge or work area ready in just seconds.
What makes the Foldable Lander even more special is a design that focuses not only on functionality but also on aesthetics and sustainability. The materials used, like Aviation Aluminum and 900D Oxford Cloth, are durable and environment-friendly. From the sandblasted matte texture to the intricate machine embroidery to the specialized mold textures, each step of the Foldable Lander’s production process demonstrates a high level of craftsmanship and acute attention to detail. For only $99, the Foldable Lander Chair or Table/Ottoman delivers a well-designed and ingenious foldable piece of furniture that will let you sit down and enjoy life wherever it takes you, whether in the great outdoors or even just outside your balcony.
I increasingly find it harder and harder to imagine a world without AI creation tools. In a matter of just a few months these tools have gone justifiably mainstream, and no matter where you look, there’s really no escaping them. Don’t get me wrong though, I don’t mean to paint these tools in a bad light, because we’ve seen them be capable of creating some stunning pieces of work, whether images, text, podcasts, or even music (if you haven’t heard the AI Drake and The Weeknd collab, go do it right now)! The first industry to be truly revolutionized by AI is probably the world of art, with text-to-image models like Midjourney turning everyone into an instant artist. Art forms a backbone to many disciplines of design – architecture definitely being one of them. Today we take a look at how creatives are using AI tools to revolutionize the world of architecture by either introducing fresh perspectives into it, or by carrying architecture to other design disciplines to make something refreshingly new. Here are 5 Top Midjourney Artists who are disrupting architecture with their AI-based creations!
Hassan Ragab (@hsnrgb)
Probably the hottest name in AI art, Hassan Ragab is an Egyptian architect based out of California, with over a decade of experience in computational architecture. Ragab took the internet by storm with his AI-based creations early on, making some unusually beautiful building facades using AI text-to-image tools. Over the months, he’s also experimented with AI videos, using tools to turn human movement into architecture (Ragab captured Michael Jackson’s dance and turned each frame into a modern building. He also did a similar exercise with a ballerina’s dance). His secret sauce, however, remains the fact that along with Midjourney, he’s also using his own custom blend of AI tools by training machines on his own architectural works over the past decade. Head to his Instagram to check out some AI architectural magic!
Arturo Tedeschi (@arturotedeschi)
Tedeschi has, for years, mastered the art of algorithmic design. It’s how nature thinks and works, he says, and using algorithms is his way of imitating nature’s balance between being artistic and efficient. A master of generative design (and an author of multiple books), he’s now begun shifting his focus on training and using AI tools to create designs. Arturo’s work isn’t simply limited to architecture, as he experiments with all sorts of AI tools and disciplines. He even recreated some MET Gala looks on his Instagram using Midjourney and is a master of understanding how to use AI to get just the right desired results. Visit his Instagram page to see what he’s up to and you can even sign up for his Domestika course of using Grasshopper’s algorithms for 3D modeling.
Shail Patel (@shael.ai)
Indian-origin Architectural Designer Shail Patel (who goes by @shael.ai on the gram) has a supremely good command over Midjourney, weaving together whimsical images of bubble homes and vehicles, vivid facades for luxury brand shops, and combining art and design in unusual ways. Shail’s designs are almost always grandiose, but have an element about them that still brings a childlike curiosity, whether it’s bubble-shaped designs, or entire fashion gowns made out of greenery. Shail’s always creating vivid new pieces of work on his Instagram page.
Ulises Design Studio (@ulises.ai)
If you love Shail’s work, you’re sure to find the Ulises.AI Instagram account just as fascinating. The Berlin-based studio specializes in ideating and realizing concepts using AI, and has collaborated with ArchDaily and its subsidiary website, DesignBoom. A lot of their work exists within the realm of architecture as they explore new materials, styles, and even architectural movements by using AI. Check out their Instagram page to see the kind of world we’d live in, if the folks at Ulises had their way!
Str4ngething (@str4ngething)
The Banksy of this list, Str4ngeThing is a faceless, identity-less being (or a group of beings) that blends the lines between fashion and architecture, simultaneously merging haute style with Renaissance elements. It’s very difficult to build a “style” while using AI tools (because the AI will use its entire database to make a variety of designs across multiple styles), but Str4ngeThing does that pretty well, with this visual niche of theirs. In fact, this eclectic blend has earned them features in Vogue, Hypebeast, High Snobiety, and even on leading NFT platforms. What really sets Str4ngeThing apart from other artists on this list is their careful blend of two distinct styles that help create something totally avant-garde. In their own way, they’ve reinvented the Renaissance and Art Noveau movements, bringing AI to them. Check out their brilliant work on their Instagram account.
I spend a substantial amount of my day on my desk, typing away to glory. Most of the time I also end up eating my meals on it! And binge-watching on Netflix as well. And I’m sure that’s the case with most of us, since working from home became the new norm, and our home offices became our new hang-out spots. But having a great desk is really important! Simply a ‘good’ desk won’t do either. A great desk helps us work comfortably and effectively. It puts us in the right mindset, helping us achieve our daily productivity goals and checkmark all the tasks on our to-do list! Not only should our desks be clean, but they should also sport an ergonomic and functional design! And good looks are an added bonus. And finding a desk that does all of the above can be a Herculean task. But worry not, I’ve found the perfect desk for you – the Tabs desk.
Designed by Pelin Özbalcı, the Tabs desk is designed for those who easily get distracted from their work. In today’s day and age, we are constantly consuming different kinds of content, and media, as a result of which our attention span is declining steadily. We find ourselves consistently procrastinating (the only thing we’re probably consistent at) and find it difficult to pay attention to any task for a long span of time. Much like the Windows tabs on our laptops and computer, the Tabs desk has also been equipped with different tabs. There are three tabs built using three different materials – the Fabric tab, Felt tab, and Cork tab. The tabs have been installed on a double rail system, attached to the table, allowing you to move the modular tabs around.
You can use the Fabric and Cork tab with thumbtacks, attaching your important notes and documents to them, while you work. The Felt tab features elastics and pockets which can be used to display notes and documents as well, or to store items. You can move the tabs around, and place the subject you’re working on in the tab in front of you, while the other tabs with tasks that need to be attended to later, can be covered, preventing your attention from fluctuating. Once you finish a task, you can move that tab away, and start working on the next tab. This is an excellent way to help you to focus on tasks one by one, without overwhelming yourself or taking up more than you can handle. This ensures that our work process becomes more streamlined, and focused.
The tabletop of the Tabs desk has been kept quite simple and minimal, although the desk has been equipped with three drawers, below the tabletop. The drawers seamlessly blend into the sides of the table, without standing out.
Google may have killed Stadia, but smartphone gaming isn’t going ANYWHERE. If anything, it’s just begun, with Sony rumored to be thinking of debuting a new handheld PlayStation this year. Meet the SnapJoy, a set of ergonomic controllers that snap onto the corners of your phone (quite like this wild Xbox Cloud mobile gaming concept from a few years ago), turning it into a handheld console quite similar to the Switch or Steam Deck. Unlike the Switch or Steam Deck, however, the SnapJoy turns your trusty smartphone into a comprehensive gaming setup, with easy-to-grip controllers that have all the buttons you need, and a curved design that actually does a precious job of not blocking any part of your screen. The best part? Discreet bumper stickers that you apply to your phone allow it to snap securely onto the SnapJoy controllers, so there’s never any chance of them disengaging during intense gameplay.
Designer: Zak Boardman
Designed by Zak Boardman, the beauty of the SnapJoy controllers are the fact that they exist independently as left and right devices that occupy hardly any space, making them easy to carry around in a bag with you wherever you go. Unlike the Steam Deck, which is a pretty massive piece of hardware, these controllers are the size of ergonomic mice, and snap to the phone in your pocket.
The way the SnapJoy controllers attach to your phone is quite brilliant. A rail guides the controllers onto the sides of the phone, with a tight tolerance for a great fit, and a set of powerful magnets help the controllers snap into place, helping them hold their position even if you’re gaming while lying down in bed.
Once snapped in place, they connect to your phone using BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) to work just the way regular wireless controllers do – although there’s a debate about whether that’s wiser than using a WiFi connection, which is a little trickier, but offers much lower latency.
The controllers themselves are fashioned with all the buttons needed for great gameplay, including two joysticks, a D-pad, action buttons, and all four L1/L2 and R1/R2 shoulder buttons. An internal battery in each controller supplies them with power, and a quick glance below also gives us a look at the internal components, which also include a vibration module for haptic feedback during gaming.
As per Boardman’s vision, the SnapJoy controllers come packaged with their own charging case, which holds four controller devices that enable two people to play games at the same time. Contact points within the case help charge each individual SnapJoy controller, and a backlit battery indicator in the case helps you gauge how much juice your controller has.
The SnapJoy controllers are conceptual for now, although Boardman has shown some progress with building 3D mock prototypes of the controller to judge their ergonomics and reliability. Let’s hope we see these in markets soon!
Humans, especially the latter generations, seem to be terrible at self-control. Modern culture and technologies have made impulse decisions even worse, thanks to encouraging instant gratification. Although not entirely impossible, it has become more difficult to build good habits when the world seems to be designed to work against you. Fortunately, those very same psychological tricks used to trick your mind into a rabbit hole of procrastination can also be used to help build up your self-control. Rather than punishing people for failing, this toy-like gadget encourages good behavior by rewarding the person in easy, quick, and bite-sized chunks, almost like earning a coin for a small good deed that can then go into buying candy or, in this case, playing your console or watching TV.
With instant gratification, you immediately receive a reward for doing very little work, a behavior that gets our minds almost addicted to the happiness that the reward brings, regardless of its long-term impact. Although mostly associated with bad habits, this kind of impulsive reward system can also be used to build good behavior using the same addictive methods, giving people small rewards more frequently with less effort until the good habit becomes second nature. Willet, which is a portmanteau of “will” and “wallet,” is a device that utilizes that psychological strategy to help people build self-control in utilizing their leisure time more wisely.
The concept for the device revolves around an orange coin-like piece that has an LED display on its surface that indicates how much “leisure time” you have saved up. This “Cookie” is charged on a different device that’s basically like a time tracker. The idea is to let the Cookie sit on the lamp-like Charger while you work, filling it up with minutes you can later use to run your leisure devices, such as a console, a TV, or even a radio. Take the Cookie too soon, and you won’t have as much time to use up compared to when you let it sit there until it’s full.
This Cookie can later be placed on a Pusher that, as its name implies, pushes a button to turn on a device. In this scenario, the Cookie acts like a timer that counts down until its earned time is all used up. Once that happens, the Pusher activates again, this time turning the attached device off until a refueled Cookie is attached again. The idea is to let the Cookie coin earn time while doing some other work and then use that time for a limited period of leisure.
Willet is a creative solution to the problem of self-control, one that uses the same impulsive reward system to do good rather than harm. While the design of the product itself also turns the system into a fun game, it does have some shortcomings in implementation. The Pusher, for example, relies heavily on devices and appliances that have a physical button to turn it on or off, and it doesn’t take into account devices like smartphones and tablets. Admittedly, that can be solved by locking those devices inside some storage that requires a push of a button to unlock.
Sometimes when doing major renovations, some people think that just throwing away furniture and other things are easier rather than thinking of ways that they can be saved or recycled. But as people have grown more conscious about how we consume and dispose of things, we’re seeing projects that are able to repurpose and upcycle various objects instead of just throwing them all into landfill or garbage disposal centers. Sometimes, the final product may actually look better than the original one where the materials came from.
Designer: Christoph Kurzmann
Oxford Brookes University was refurbishing and renovating around 250 student bedrooms in their dorms and had plans to just bring the furniture straight to the landfill. One of their furniture design students thought about using the raw material from the beds and drawers and incorporate them into new furniture designs. The Upscaling Upcycling project born and he wanted to use this as an example that designers can use materials from objects around them that can no longer be used.
What Kurzmann did was to disassemble the existing furniture and then use them to build new kinds of furniture that he designed. For the bedframes taken from the old dorms, he was able to turn them into stackable stools that have some overlapping lines and frames. He also used the bed slats to create stacking chairs, both with arms and without. He was able to turn the drawers into storage towers that act more like shelves.
The final furniture output are pretty well-designed and also very useful and practical. Good thing he was able to “save” these beds and drawers that would have otherwise just gone to waste or would have served as fire kindling. At least now, these pieces have also benefitted the school as they will be able to use it in various spaces.
Called Public Access, the exhibition features projects designed for public use and comprises two sections, a physical outdoor component and an indoor installation with documentation and references at Brooklyn gallery and bookshop Head Hi.
Public Access is a design exhibition in Brooklyn
In total, the exhibition features 35 projects designed to respond to locales in the United States, United Kingdom, Vietnam and nine other nations, selected from an open call put out last year.
A selection of these have been presented at the boardwalk at the Naval Cemetery Landscape in Brooklyn, a park and native plant landscape.
The furniture was installed in a reclaimed park
These outdoor projects range from bird feeders and seed libraries to benches and community fridges, all made from simple materials meant to show “how can design serve more as like a point of empathy” according to curator Jean Lee.
The indoor portion of the exhibition features photography and documentation of the remaining projects, with a map showing the various international locations where they are located.
Jean Lee of Ladies and Gentlemen Studios curated Public Access
All of the schematics for the designs have also been made available online so that they can be repeated and modified for different contexts.
Curator Jean Lee, who is the co-founder of Brooklyn design studio Ladies and Gentlemen, said that the designs were meant to be a celebration of “ad hoc” design practices, public space and “empathy”.
The designs were made to foster interaction with public space
“A lot of all these public access projects are simply designing something for somebody else – it could be a stranger,” she told Dezeen.
“It’s an invitation to interact and engage in a place that perhaps didn’t have any design. It’s a reimagining of what place to be.”
The schematics have been published online for widespread use
The impetus for the project came both from the Covid-19 pandemic when Lee noticed that people were spending more time interacting with local environments and from a desire to “explore design without commerce”.
“We’re not criticizing the industry by any means, but simply want to expand the lens to look at how design permeates throughout life,” Lee told Dezeen.
“It’s where people decide to use something else and repurpose it and then fix it, and over time it becomes a sort of evolution of different people putting their hands on something – and there’s no authorship, it’s not about owning, or taking credit for anything.”
The exhibition was accompanied by an indoor element at a local bookshop and gallery Head Hi
“It’s public access, not private excess,” added Head Hi founder Alexandra Hodkowski.
Lee also noted that it was important that designers engage with the communities they were designing for, and encouraged them to get permission and to understand the needs of the locale, adding that sometimes “designers can overthink” projects and design without assessing the actual needs or desires of a place.
The point was to facilitate interaction and not to “dictate” it, she said.
Designs for animals, as well as humans, were included
A number of notable designers contributed to the outdoor installation, which featured designs built for animals as well as humans.
Mexican designer Jorge Diego Etienne created a small wooden shelter for opossums, while Lee’s own studio Ladies and Gentlemen created a public bookshelf and lost-and-found meant to hold a variety of objects.
American artist Allan Wexler created public seating with detachable chairs that line up to form a white picket fence.
New York-based Various Projects worked with the local organization One Love Community to create a modular public fridge made from painted lobster cages sourced from Maine.
Lee is part of Furnishing Utopia, a collective that undersigned the exhibition, and takes inspiration from the simple, community-oriented designs of the Shakers, a religious community known for its craft and communal design.
Shaker seed libraries were an inspiration for the curators
The organisation has put on a number of other shows celebrating simple, non-commercial design initiatives.
Public Access is on view at the Naval Cemetery Landscape from 18 May to 25 May, while the exhibition at Head Hi is on view from 18 May to 3 June. For more exhibitions, talks and events during New York’s design week, visit Dezeen’s dedicated NYCxDesign guide.
Local studio Daniel Joseph Chenin has placed a sprawling stone residence around an 1850s fort-inspired rotunda outside of Las Vegas, Nevada.
Daniel Joseph Chenin settled the 7,800-square foot (725-square-metre) house on an acre rock outcrop near government-protected land in Las Vegas Valley, looking out to Red Rock Canyon.
Daniel Joseph Chenin designed the house in the Las Vegas desert
Named Fort 137, “the building pays homage to the old fort structures from the early settlement days of Las Vegas, which relied upon site-sourced materials along with tried-and-true techniques for designing and building in an arid climate,” the team told Dezeen.
The five-bedroom house was conceived as a series of connected rock masses, oriented to maximise views of the surrounding landscape and arranged to create thermally protected communal zones on the interior.
Fort 137 is characterised by its stone facade
The house is heralded by a 28-foot tall (8.5 metres) conical rotunda that marks the inhabitants’ movements from the heat of the desert to the cool interior.
“Upon entering the rotunda, the sound of running water from the lower level’s stone fountain transitions mindsets from the arid desert heat to one of a cooling desert mirage, and a winding staircase provides access to a rooftop lounge outfitted with a firepit and expansive desert views,” the team said.
A shaded courtyard features a 75-ton excavated boulder
From the rotunda, residents transition to an internal, shaded courtyard featuring a 75-ton excavated boulder and continue through a blurred transition into the home’s shared spaces.
Two heavy, sand-coloured stone walls run the length of the house, dividing the plan into three volumes.
Living spaces include expansive views of the surrounding canyon
The private zones, consisting of a primary suite, secondary suite and three additional bedrooms, flank the outside of the walls, while the shared zones serve as a central connection with a lounge, kitchen, office and theatre room.
A steel frame holds two fully retracting, floor-to-ceiling glass panel walls that turn the living and dining rooms into a breezeway through the house from the north to the south, bringing in sunlight and cross ventilation off the adjacent pool.
Floor-to-ceiling glazing also provides a connection to the swimming pool
“Transparent halls and pocket gardens allow the desert to spill into the home,” the team said.
Drawing colours and textures from the landscape, Fort 137 uses native and regionally sourced materials that will patina over time.
The rough and robust stone exterior juxtaposes the refined interior with travertine floors, stucco ceilings and reconstituted wood veneer vertical panels.
Brass details, weathered steel features, and hot rolled steel provide warm metallic touches that brighten the spaces.
The rough and robust stone exterior juxtaposes the refined interior
The house limits environmental impacts through its photovoltaic panel infrastructure and ballast roofing – which extend the effects of passive cooling, thermal mass and radiant heating – to create an oasis in the desert valley.
“With a courtyard configuration, thick stone walls, deep-set fenestrations and trellis shade structures, Fort 137 is anchored in the landscape and reclaims a passive approach to architecture by harnessing the elements rather than fighting the environment,” the team said.
Using similar cross-ventilation strategies, Brandon Architects clad a home in stone and opened a wall of windows along one side to overlook the Las Vegas Strip nearby.
Project team: Daniel Joseph Chenin, Eric Weeks, Kevin Welch, Esther Chung, Jose Ruiz, Grace Ko, Alberto Sanchez, Debra Ackermann, Julie Nelson Project consultants: Contractor: Forté Specialty Contractors Civil engineer: McCay Engineering Landscape architect: Vangson Consulting, LLC Structural engineer: Vector Structural Engineering Mechanical, electrical & plumbing: Engineering Partners, Inc. Pool & water features: Ozzie Kraft Custom Pools Millwork design: Daniel Joseph Chenin, Ltd. Furniture fixtures & accessories: Daniel Joseph Chenin, Ltd. Art consultant: Daniel Fine Art Services AV & controls: Audio Integrations
This Post series of lamps was designed by Earnest Studio, a/k/a Rachel Griffin, an American expat designer based in Rotterdam.
“A series of lamps based on a single, independent, LED light source, which can be attached (alone or in multiples) to one of four cylindrical steel armatures, designed for the table, floor, ceiling and wall.”
“The sources are fastened with a magnetic connection, which allows them to be arranged in an unlimited number of positions and orientations, with each combination producing a different function, composition and character.”
Designed for Scandinavian design brand Muuto, at one point the Post Floor Lamp and Post Wall Lamp variants were in production, but at press time the links were not working.
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