Hasta La Ideas

images via Designed & Made

For your average industrial designer, it’s not enough to know that furniture with built-in secret compartments exist: We want to know how these things are built. Sometimes there are simple construction tricks we can use, as with the first neat hidden compartment revealed in the video below:

The video above is by Popular Woodworking, who revealed how to make the spice drawers above in an article from last year. Other companies are hawking DVDs on how to construct hidden compartments in a variety of objects, as in this somewhat odd match-up between magician James Coats and contractor/designer Dan Hamann:

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Good gosh. Where most people see bookcases as a handy place to store tomes, the anonymous gentleman behind Q-Line Design sees prime hidden storage space for assault rifles, handguns, knives and ammunition. Check out their SafeGuard Shelving System:

(My first thought was “Does he have enough guns?” but as someone who owns 40-plus vintage sewing machines, I’d be calling the kettle black. An object fetish is an object fetish.)

Another gentleman over in Michigan produces endtables with a similar function:

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“Hey pops, the times are a-changing,” suggests the sparse website. “Gone are the days when you could impress the friends with your old oak rocking-chair.”

Enter the iRock: billed as the first-ever power-generating rocking chair, Zürich’s Micasa Lab has updated the classic rocker with a tech twist: “As long as you rock, you charge you iPad or your iPhone.”

We have added… a generator that transforms the movement into power. We have equipped the iRock with an iPad stand and a set of built-in speakers in the back rest. Over the last couple years, we have come to depend on an increasing amount of technical gadgets…

The iRock is a product that explores how furniture can interact with technology and actually support the power for this technology. Movement is energy and to collect as much of this energy as possible is one of our future challenges. The laws of physics dictate how movement and friction constantly creates a vast amount of energy that in most cases is lost. iRock is a attempt to collect some of this energy and put it to real use. If you use iRock for 60 minutes you can recharge an iPad 3 to 35%.

The iRock is set at a “pleasant 37° rocking angle,” allowing for a generous range of motion in generating power, which can be stored in a built-in battery for later use; I assume that the 25W speakers are also rock-powered.

The main challenge was to get the generator working efficient. After trying out several designs we finally got it right and with a set of gears we’re now able to get sufficient power to charge the built in battery that in it’s turn are charging the iPad/iPhone. A concept we were working on for quite some time was the use of rubber bands and springs to increase the effect of the movement but we ended up with a solution using a winding mechanism that is geared up to run the generator.

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I don’t know if I’ve ever received a gift that was so bad that I’ve wanted to set it ablaze… or if I’ve ever had to burn furniture for warmth. Suffice it to say that those who can afford to give or receive Supergrau’s KLOEZZE probably won’t be doing either, um, either. They note that “the cold season is coming and with it the time of pleasant evenings in front of a flickering fire starts [and] the right moment to start the search for lovely Christmas presents. For either situation SUPERGRAU provides the perfect product.”

Given the shamelessly simple concept behind the modular seating/surface—in contrast to highly refined previously-seen designs from the German company—it’s hard to argue with them:

Born from the unspoilt provocative idea to top off the consumption of the superfluous and to offer a designed firewood, KLOEZZE was created: a loose piece of furniture with system character.

And there is more behind the spare parts of building bricks: Assembled in different arrangements, the product allows creative room to put together the single pieces as wished. Therefore, KLOEZZE truly is an all-rounder: its elements can be stacked up in different seating situations and decoration modules.

The name apparently refers to each individual log, as it comes in an “expandable basic set of six KLOEZZE (3x pine, 2x oak, 1x cherry wood)” for €140; larger sets of up to 44 KLOEZZE are also available. Each configuration is secured with two extra strong rubber bands in yellow or blue. “Whether KLOEZZE ends up in the fire, gets used as rudimentary furniture or emits its decorative charm next to the fireside is sublimely left to the beholder.”

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From Danish office furniture company Holmris comes the XTable, designed by KiBiSi. The height-adjustable desk is powered not by a motor, but manually, via elbow grease and a handcrank:

XTable is a piece of office machinery that accommodates multiple working positions and daily reshuffling. XTable uses manual kinetic power instead of electricity for height adjustments—saves energy and keeps users active. All technical features are constructively integrated in the table top. It uses a century old principle known from carjacks, ironing boards and other iconic tools.

This one’s fresh off the presses and not yet up on Holmris’ website; they launched the XTable just two days ago. While the European and Scandinavian markets will surely be targeted, there’s no word as to overseas availability. Hopefully they’ll make their way stateside—I’d get one just so I could force an intern to satisfy my every work-height whim.

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