Hasta La Ideas

Dwell magazine recently published a fascinating piece on a new trend in pop-up furniture. “Pop-Up Schmop-Up” highlights mostly space-saving furniture for public spaces, but it starts with the Armin Wagner cardboard Pop Up Desk for homes and offices:

Next up is Rogier Martens’ POP-UP 2010 public benches:

My favorite item not pictured in the article, but certainly mentioned, is the Urilift public restroom. It’s a public restroom that raises and lowers out of the ground at certain times of the day. There is a not-so-safe-for-work but amazing marketing video showing exactly how the toilet operates. These pop-up restrooms would be perfect in D.C. where our public spaces have so many different uses over the course of the year — festivals, protests, inaugurations, parades, sports fields, sunbathing, tourist walkways, etc.

Check out the full article for even more amazing pop-up furniture products. These products all remind me of Gary Chang’s Incredibly Efficient Efficiency, and I’m looking forward to seeing more of these kinds of space-saving designs. I love to see designers thinking outside the box — literally, in the case of Wagner’s Pop Up Desk.