Hasta La Ideas

Italian design/e-commerce platform Stylemylife—who brought us Max Battaglia & Matteo Mochi’s Pratonzolo—is back with “Size,” a chair made out of coat hangers.

For its nominal similarity to Joey Zeledon’s “Coat Check Chair,” “Size” is a different beast, both in concept and in execution. It may not have the secondary functionality of Zeledon’s semi-viral design, but at least (it looks like) you can actually sit on it.

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Visitors to the Botanical Gardens in Dundee, Scotland this weekend are being treated to an interesting addition to the park furniture that could well be a world’s first. Every time a passerby takes a perch on student Chris McNicoll’s @tweetingseat a snapshot taken from a camera in the bench, and another in a nearby tree, are uploaded to Twitter, automatically capturing the sitters and their view from the bench.

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Just in time for summer, Dutch designer Marijn van der Poll has taken inspiration from traditional dutch wickerwork beach chairs to create a new standard for the contemporary office environment. In the same way that the traditional wicker chairs provided their users some protection against the elements, the “Ahrend Kaigan” creates some privacy for users in today’s open office plans offering some protection from visual and audible distractions. Explains van der Poll:

Open plan offices, where there is no rigid boundary between one worksite and the next, are becoming increasingly popular. These often include benches—something like old-fashioned kitchen tables—where people sit side by side while they work. This set-up stimulates communication between team members.”

But you still need a bit of privacy from time to time. For a chat with a colleague, for example, or a confidential phone call whose contents you don’t want everyone to hear. The “Ahrend Kaigan” allows you to withdraw into a world of your own for a while and is designed to reinforce this feeling of separation both for the user and for the surroundings.

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It’s common knowledge that moving is one of life’s biggest stresses. So to think about packing all my furniture into a truck for a combined total weight of 7.5kg/16.5 pounds—the weight of a nice, single chair—is pretty exhilarating.

Amsterdam-based Studio Geneen has created a conceptual collection of airy furniture. The lightweight furniture construction “reduc[es] energy consumption during production and transport and of course, minimizes the amount of materials used in these products.” Using high-tech textiles like Dyneema (gel-spun fiber), 3D printing and innovative construction techniques, the Light Room collection includes 2 chairs, a coffee table, stool and shelving unit. Read more about the specs for the Light Room collection after the jump and watch the video for inspiration for the “Gaudi Stool” below.

“Gaudi Stool”

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This Saturday, Parisian designer Vincent Dubourg’s new exhibition opens at Carpenters Workshop Gallery with a brunch! I first encountered Dubourg’s work at Design Miami where his exploding wall-mounted shelving unit was one of the more exciting pieces from the fair. Continuing with his deconstructed theme, the centerpiece for his new solo show, “Buffet Nouvelle Zeland Rencontre des Pôles” presents a familiar form in an unexpectedly violent deconstruction.

Dubourg describes his pieces as a fusion of furniture, architecture and sculpture. They strike a careful balance between practical and beautiful. He uses traditional furniture making techniques such as blowing glass, wood-bending and metal casting as a means of transforming simple materials and found objects. See more of Dubourg’s work after the jump.

Inside
Carpenters Workshop Gallery
19 March – 28 May 2011
3 Albemarle Street
London

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