Hasta La Ideas

Design Miami 2013: this chair shaped like the fanned fail of a peacock by Toronto design studio UUfie was one of the most talked-about pieces at the Design Miami collectors’ fair last month.

The symmetrical shape of UUfie‘s Peacock chair is made from a latticed sheet of Corian, a solid surface material that’s often used for kitchen work surfaces and bathrooms, which curls round at the bottom and spreads out at the top to create the back of the chair.

The sheet was slit to create the lattice then stretched apart and folded round in a thermoforming process that uses heat to soften the material.

“Like children playing with paper by cutting, bending and folding it, we have created a single sheet of acrylic composite material into a peacock,” said the designers. “Resembling a peacock tail in courtship or a blossom opening, it makes a visual statement in any space, indoors or outdoors.”

The chair comes in two sizes and can be made in any colour. It was presented at Design Miami 2013 last month by Galleria Rosanna Orlandi and is now on show in Milan at Spazio Rossana Orlandi.

Photography is by Marco Covi.

The post Chair shaped like the tail of a peacock
by UUfie appeared first on Dezeen.

For those readers who asked to see more interiors from Zaha Hadid’s Pierres Vives government building in Montpellier, here’s a reading room lined with glowing bookcases by architect Stephane Hof (+ slideshow).

Hof previously worked for Zaha Hadid Architects and was the project architect for Pierres Vives, the regional government building of Herault, before forming his own practice last year.

The Alphabet Library is located within the building’s public archive department and houses books between a series of curved Corian panels.

Tables and information desks curve out from the bookcases, forming continuous surfaces.

Above: photograph is by Laurence Ravoux

“If you look at all the old reading rooms in libraries in France, the tables are always detached from the bookshelves,” architect Stephane Hof told Dezeen. “We wanted to create something that combined these two functions into one.”

Above: photograph is by the architects

Hof also explained how “the abstract forms of letters” inspired the shapes of the shelves and tables. “Not literally the alphabet, but L-shapes, H-shapes, T-Shapes, etc.” he said.

Above: photograph is by the architects

Strips of lighting are positioned beneath the Corian surfaces, illuminating the bookcases and framing the outlines of tables.

See more images of the Pierres Vives building in our earlier story.

Above: photograph is by the architects

Photography is by MC Lucat, apart from where otherwise stated.

Here’s a project description from Hof:

Alphabet Library

Located within the Pierres Vives building in Montpellier to serve as a reading room for the Archive of the Department of Herault.

Above: photograph is by the architects

For a public reading room such as this, we decided to provide visitors with a pleasant and comfortable space to read surrounded by a treasure trove of books that lend the space an overwhelming physical presence.

The new library comprises an entrance desk, an information desk, reading room tables and library shelves.

Above: photograph is by the architects

We combined the different functions of the program into a single object in order to create a new dialogue between the tables and the library and a continuous flow through the entire space. The tables bend around the back wall to form the library with each piece of the puzzle referencing a letter of the alphabet. The field of tables resonates with the lighting of the existing ceiling to form its “shadow”. At night the edge of the Corian material used throughout is back-lit and makes the ceiling, the library and tables appear as one.

Above: photograph is by the architects

The project palette is composed of: 2 functions: reading room tables and library shelving; 2 materials: timber and corian; 2 colours: black and white; 2 geometries: straight and curved. This reflects the duality of author and reader; the one’s intention and the other’s interpretation.

Above: axonometric plan

The post Alphabet Library
by Stephane Hof appeared first on Dezeen.

Hong Kong studio Davidclovers and Los Angeles artist C.E.B. Reas have created a shop front in Hong Kong where LED lighting pulses through patterns cut in the surface of two large Corian doors. (more…)