Studio Gorm—you may know them from their kitchen or their work with the Univ. of Oregon Product Design Department—showed these elegant pieces at the Salone Satellite in Milan and they are now online for worldwide cyber perusal.
Check out the chair, coat hook, carpet—a favorite, looks lush, table
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Designer Ivan Zhang originally hails from Shanghai but is currently working towards his Masters degree at Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design in Germany. Indeed, his work draws heavily on a certain school of Northern European design, which holds that form follows function. In keeping with the unassailable logic of minimalism, Zhang has developed his own formula, simplifying “A + B → C” to “A’ → C”—something to the effect of incorporating a “correction” (user-generated solution for specific use cases) into a product.
For example, not only does the Bookshelf’ incorporate a flatpack-friendly hinged top and bottom panel, the slightly arching shelves eliminate the need for bookends (or the ad hoc solution of propping of a book to serve as such.)
We usually tilt the last book on the shelf in order to prevent the books from falling. Likewise, a wide variety of bookends are on the market for the same purpose. This “conscious action” or “auxiliary bookend” is defined as “B” in A’ philosophy, that is: correction… This natural shape of Bookshelf’ makes conscious rectification unnecessary.
Elaborate justification aside, the work is quite interesting in itself—the tension in the shelves suggests a tautly composed structure, and Zhang notes that “with the strength produced by the arched board itself, users can easily assemble the bookshelf without punching or screws.”
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Way back in 1995, Core77 was just a baby, and designer Rolf Sachs blew the sawdust off of a new chair he’d designed. Two notes:
1. Had we had the blog up and running back then we’d have covered it, but it took two years before anyone even knew what a “blog” was.
2. As you can probably tell, these first three photos are indicative of 1995 image quality.
Sach’s brilliant 3 Equal Parts chair, “an academic exercise in deconstructivism,” consisted of three L-shaped pieces made from heavy, 28mm thick Doug Fir. All three pieces were identical, and the user could configure the chair in a couple of different ways.
Years later Sachs revisited the chair for an exhibition in 2008, adding a sexy little angle to the L and switching materials to Swiss stone pine. (Unsurprising, as the longtime Switzerland-loving Sachs had converted a Swiss Olympic bobsled facility into his holiday home and was presumably surrounded by the stuff.)
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That’s the Growth Table, by L.A.-based architects Tim Durfee and Iris Anna Regn. While it’s not practical for say, a Manhattan apartment, who wouldn’t love to stick one of these into an open-plan office and use it to reinforce hierarchy among co-workers?
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Speaking of gaming tables and things that fold into boxes, here’s a video of a wicked design by David Roentgen, a cabinetmaking mechanical genius from 18th-Century Germany. This deceptively simple-looking table has so many amazing features I don’t want to describe and spoil them for you—just fullscreen it and watch:
Are you freaking kidding me? Just making the moving hardware alone, pre-Industrial-Revolution, must’ve been ridiculously complicated; that and the fact that Roentgen pulled this off without CAD or any power tools boggles the mind.
Roentgen and his father Abraham, by the way, were designers and makers on the order of Jean-Francois Oeben, except they were based in Germany. After Abraham died, David took over the family business and was eventually appointed the ebeniste-mecanicien—”Cabinetmaker Mechanic”—to one Marie Antoinette.
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Our friends at KiBiSi recently sent us the ‘scoop’ on their latest project, a chair for their fellow Danes at Globe Zero 4. Taking its name from the construction vehicle, the Scoop features an “innovative gyroscope-like suspension system conveys a feeling of being carried—a free suspended feel. The Y-shaped beam creates a visual and functional overlap between seat and base.”
KiBiSi partner and Head of Design (and 2011 Core77 Design Awards jury captain) Lars Larsen notes that, “Scoop is the logic output of a clear idea: The character of the series lies in the straight forward appearance—a kind of ideogram of how it works.” His colleague, co-founder and Creative Director Jens Martin Skibsted also notes that “We wanted to stay clear of a home decorative cutesy product and contract business polish. We needed to establish a new middle ground that would bridge private and public spaces. Yet this wasn’t an exercise in style. We had to come up with an entirely new suspension system to build the gravity of the product inside out.”
Thus, the new design is intended to strike a balance betwen craft and technology: “The innovative technical edge increases comfort, yet maintains a clear and simple Scandinavian appearance. The chair has a tailor upholstered cast foam seat and an injection molded aluminum frame. The scoop family comprises of a conference chair, a lounge chair, a table and a bar stool in the making.”
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Reporting by Sarah Pease
A reception earlier this month marked the official completion of another successful collaboration between the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and neighboring Brown University. Four RISD students, Taylor McKenzie-Veal, Scot Bailey, Ian Stell, and Yumi Yoshida, along with faculty advisor Christopher Specce, worked for almost two years to design and produce a suite of site-specific furniture for Brown’s newest building, the Granoff Center for the Creative Arts. [Ed. Note: We’d previously been impressed with work from Mckenzie-Veal, Bailey and Stell at Ventura Lambrate in Milan last year.]
Brown University’s Granoff Center for the Creative Arts
The furniture designs were conceived and produced to resemble the familiar furniture typologies present in a living room. “The suite of furniture can be rearranged, adjusted, and adapted to the multifunctional program of the building. These furnishings extend the utility of each landing and breathe life into the space with a punch of inviting color,” described McKenzie-Veal. The collection includes the following three pieces:
The Granoff Sofa
The Granoff Sofa is a flexible seating system design specifically for the landings within the building. In its complete couch arrangement, the furniture fills the full width of the landing. At once, the sections of the sofa can be pulled apart to become three independent seating surfaces. Users can rearrange the sofa into a large variety of formats to cater specifically to the task at hand.
The Granoff Chair
The Granoff Chair is a geometrical lounge chair that utilizes the formal language of the building to create a surprisingly comfortable seating experience. Designed to mirror the triangular, planar forms of the building and contrast with the organic forms of the couch, this chair provides a counterpoint to the other furnishings as well as a wonderful spot to sit and enjoy the building.
The Granoff Side Table / Stool
The Granoff Stool & Side Table is a multifunctional task surface that directly interfaces with the couch and chair. A set of three can nearly double the seating quota of a particular landing or simply provide users with a surface to place their belongings or kick up their feet.
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A newer design technology in the Wintec Innovation fold (see our post on their Winbloks) is their Stratflex system. It’s essentially flatpack furniture with a twist, or rather, a bend: Plywood is scored through several of its layers at specific junctures, allowing the forms to ship flat, but flex during assembly. The gaps are permanently filled with a flexible polymer that can withstand the slight deformation.
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Thingking, a Cape Town-based design/build studio was honored this week with the 2013 Most Creative Stand Award at Design Indaba Expo. Their Twitter-activated Rube Goldberg machine served as a backdrop for their minimal objects.
Simple Trestles
Thingking is Lyall Sprong and Marc Nicolson’s “designer-maker consultancy.” Based in Cape Town’s design district of Woodstock, the three-year-old company does a range of client work ranging from interior/exhibition to interactive products (check out their Lipton Vending Machine, “the world’s first floating vending machine.) We wrote about Thingking’s converted Gypsy Caravan buildout for The Soft Machine, an ice cream truck that debuted at Design Indaba last year.
At this year’s Expo, they showed a small range of their design objects—I particularly loved their Pot Plant Stands, freestanding or wall-mounted powdercoated steel frames that are designed to support potted plants as singles or in series. Their nesting plywood Nominal boxes, represent the duo’s design ethos. They work with common materials, creating objects that, “are designed by the people that choose them. Undefined, non-precious, archetypal frameworks.”
Nominal Boxes
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While the Oeben Mechanical Desk conceals all of its machinery inside its form, designer Joe Paine’s equally beautiful Mechanical Bureau proudly wears its gears on its sleeve. The now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t worksurface is operated by a crank attached to gears and a rack and pinion system, inspired by 19th- and 20th-Century farm equipment. Check out how smooth it looks in action:
Jo’burg-based Paine’s creation recently made an appearance at Design Indaba, where it was a Finalist for Most Beautiful Object in South Africa 2013.
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