Hasta La Ideas

We clearly have mixed feelings about Mid-Century Modern furniture here at Core: on one hand, it’s past its heyday (as its very name suggests); on the other hand, it has become a classic—if not altogether timeless—aesthetic in itself.

The recent rediscovery of Hans J. Wegner’s “Oculus” chair—designed in 1960 but forgotten until 2009—then, is effectively beyond criticism: of course it hearkens to a previous era, precisely because it is from the middle of last century. The New York Times reports that the chair resurfaced in “an e-mail from the Wegner studio [to Carl Hansen & Son] with a picture of the chair from a 1968 magazine.”

Yet it’s considered a new model, because the long-lost design never made it to production; apparently a single prototype survived the past half-century:

“Normally, when we develop or relaunch an old product, we buy it at auction and cut it in two to see what it’s like on the inside,” Mr. Vagner [President of Carl Hansen Corp.] said. But since it was the only one, they had it scanned in 3-D, so they could see the interior.

Where staid brands such as Fritz Hansen have invited established designers to expand the horizon of their offerings within a minimalist aesthetic, there is certainly a sense that the style itself is not quite. (Carl Hansen & Son, for their part, have been more conservative with their recent designs.)

And while it’s strange to imagine Wegner designing beyond the grave, it’s not often that you hear about posthumous furniture design… Who knows what other design gems have been lost to the sands of time?

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Earlier this year, we had a first look at South Korean design collective Monocomplex. These warm summer months have apparently been quite productive for founders Jangwon Cho, Eunsang Hwang, Hyunwoo Park and Taemin Kim—who, according to their website, all graduated from the Industrial Design program at Konkuk University… earlier this year. Once again, we find ourselves enamored with at least a few of their designs, along with a couple strong concepts that have room for improvement.

First up, the “Dynamite Vase” isn’t a reference to Good Times but the sticks of explosive material, which have been reimagined in wood—ash, of all materials—to make a handsome vase.

Dynamite invented by Nobel was a fatal weapon to destroy peace. However, the true purpose of it was to end war and bring peace other than the outbreak of war.

‘Dynamite Vase’ is a work to give paradox and wit through a vase with the key word of love to dynamite with the key word of war and danger. ‘Dynamite Vase’ made a glass vase held by ash wood and used leather string as finishing material to combine each of dynamites.

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Designer, entrepreneur and Core77 Design Awards Runner-Up Dario Antonioni of L.A.-based design firm Orange22 recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to produce a bench called “Botanist Minimal,” an extension of the established Botanist series (itself a spinoff of Orange22).

Of course, there’s more to it than meets the eye:

The minimalistic design is based on a reduction based design process where we examined a typical bench and rigorously reduced it into its essential elements. In the case of Botanist Minimal, only two basic components are meaningful to produce a functional bench. Those components are 1) a bent wood top which transitions into the structural legs and 2) a center rib for additional stability and rigidity. The end result is beautiful with the two basic elements working harmoniously together.

It’s certainly an elegant piece of design work—I’d sit on it and even consider putting it in my home—and I agree that “designing something that’s minimal doesn’t make it easy to manufacture,” but why use Kickstarter? Dario makes his case after the jump…

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I stumbled across Lui Kawasumi’s laser-cut metal seats while working in the Furniture Department at RISD. A recent graduate of RISD, Kawasumi’s series of Mozaika furniture uses a repeating square pattern that changes across the entirety of the pieces due the convex and concave bulges. These ingenious laser-cut squares are only connected at the vertices, allowing this pattern transformation.

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Both a bassinet and a rocker, Koo is a stylish and innovative solution for new parents. Check out LUNAR’s Creative Director Sandrine Lebas as she shares her thought process, insights and creative motivation in a new video interview (after the jump!).

The first few months with a newborn are precious, but babies also create enormous disruption in the lives of parents—new furniture, carriers, bags, food gear, not to mention reducing night time to only fleeting moments of sleep.

Koo is a multitasking 2-in-1 bassinet and rocker that helps manage the transition from fussy baby to happy family. Mom (and Dad) pick up their sleepless child, flip down the seat and rock them gently back to the land of sweet dreams, while minimizing both the product’s carbon footprint and its physical one.

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