Hasta La Ideas

Dutch firm Studio Makkink & Bey has created a collection of furniture for a nomadic future including a backpack that becomes a sofa bed, a carrycot that becomes a table and a walking cane that turns into an illuminated screen (+ slideshow).

Conceptroom Huisraad by Makkink & Bey is a range of objects that examines the concept of domestic interiors that are no longer attached to any one physical space.

The items form part of Living Spaces, an exhibition exploring textiles in Dutch interiors at the TextielMuseum in Tilburg, the Netherlands. The pieces “depict a future scenario in which the individual travels light and stays comfortable,” said the team.

As part of the display, Makkink & Bey created three objects that utilise natural materials and animal fibres combined with multiple uses.

WarmteWeefsels, meaning “heat tissues”, is a carrycot that turns into a table. In its former state, the cot comes with a pair of adjustable handles and blanket.

To convert it into a table, users remove the blanket, slide the handles to their widest setting and flip the whole thing upside down. The blanket can then be used as either a rug or table cloth.

VouwPlaats, or “fold place”, is a knitted mattress and chair you can carry around as you would a backpack.

The user wears a woollen jacket attached to the frame to carry the VouwPlaats around.

By placing it on the floor, the rolled up mattress acts as a seat and the frame acts as a backrest.

To convert the piece into a bed, the user simply unclasps the two straps holding it together and rolls out the mattress.

The VensterLicht, or “window light”, is a portable room divider and a cane. When closed, the VensterLicht is a chunky walking stick. Inside however, is a four-legged stand and strip-light with a piece of silk cloth attached. When unravelled, it creates a full-length screen.

Each piece provides individuals with, “expandable, foldable and lightweight furniture to travel with, as they traverse boundless interiors – our shrinking world,” said the designers.

This isn’t the first time Studio Makkink & Bey has created multifunctional furniture; last year they created SideSeat, a mash-up of a desk, shelves and swivel chair in one.

Living Spaces continues at the TextielMuseum until 11 May.

Photography is by Rene van der Hulst, commissioned by the TextielMuseum.

The post Studio Makkink & Bey create furniture
for a nomadic living room appeared first on Dezeen.

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In pre-ordine qui.

Dutch shoe brand United Nude and fashion designer Iris van Herpen have collaborated to create crescent-shaped boots for her latest ready to wear collection shown at Paris Fashion Week.

For Van Herpen‘s Autumn Winter 2014 collection titled Biopiracy, the designer and United Nude worked together on two footwear designs.

The futuristic boots curve up and around the leg, encompassing the lower leg on both sides and looping behind the knee.

A long seam runs up the front of the upper before it opens at the top, while the back of the calf is left exposed.

Seven-inch-high heels cantilever from the back of the solid base, which continues the shape of the upper to the ground.

A peep-toe boot was also created in a similar style, but with a strap that wraps around the leg at ankle height instead of at the knee.

Black, cream and white leather was used for the designs, complimenting the colours of Van Herpen’s garments.

The Biopiracy collection was shown on Tuesday during Paris Fashion Week.

This is the ninth time United Nude and Van Herpen have worked together on footwear for her shows. “Working with Iris Van Herpen is each time a big challenge for us as she pushes boundaries with ideas for things that have never been done before,” said United Nude founder Rem D Koolhaas.

Last season they created 3D-printed shoes the resembled tree roots and the year before they added spikes made from semi-precious stones within the heels of platforms.

Dezeen interviewed Koolhaas last year, when he discussed United Nude’s “extreme theatre” shoe collaborations and talked about the future of 3D-printed footwear.

Here’s some information from Iris Van Herpen and United Nude:

United Nude make shoes with Iris Van Herpen for her Biopiracy collection

United Nude collaborates with Iris Van Herpen for shoes completing her collection for its 9th consecutive time. Nevertheless this is the first time that two instead of just one design graced the runway, in the form of the Biopiracy Boot and the Biopiracy peeptoe ankle Bootie, both on staggering 7 inch tall platform cantilevered heels.

The Biopiracy collection by Iris Van Herpen emerged from astonishment of companies’ patented human genes. As part of the show, Lawrence Malstaf created art installations, which developed the impression of models being weightless and breathless. In their half-sleep they seem bio-hacked, to slow down time and energy. Iris van Herpen and Lawrence Malstaf experiment with living objects, kinetic architecture and physical interaction through fashion in installation art.

A 3D printing collaboration with Julia Koerner and Materialise fuses the artisanal with the technical to create a kinetic dress which dances as it amplifies bodily movement. The Iris Van Herpen × United Nude Boot overrules the natural shape of the foot; this makes the graphically leather moulded boots futuristic sculptures extending the legs with a new silhouette into motion. Iris Van Herpen and United Nude is a match made in heaven from day one, as they are both not afraid of breaking boundaries by experimentation with design and technology.

Rem D Koolhaas: “Working with Iris Van Herpen is each time a big challenge for us as she pushes boundaries with ideas for things that have never been done before. Collaboration partners like Iris Van Herpen and Zaha Hadid give us way for our continuation in re-inventing shoes. United Nude was originally founded on this principle with our sculptural sandals just over ten years ago; breaking the rules of conventional ladies shoe-making, not for the sake if breaking them, but simply by not knowing them.”

The post United Nude designs sculptural shoes for
Iris van Herpen’s Biopiracy fashion collection appeared first on Dezeen.