Milan 2014: Designer Tom Dixon will present a range of furniture and metallic lighting that references British members’ clubs in Milan next month.
Flood lighting collection
Tom Dixon describes his Club series as a modern take on old gentlemen’s clubs found in the UK. “A misspent youth spent in the London warehouse club scene and a series of experimental private club interiors are the reasons why we have chosen to reinvigorate the fabled British members’ club into a futuristic social environment,” said the designer.
Grey Beat pendant light for The Beat Collection
The series features a wide pendant light called Flood, which has been created using injection-moulded polymers commonly used in the automotive industry. The designer’s well-known metallic Beat pendant lights have been recoloured in a matte grey with an internal silver plate.
Table and floor lights additions The Beat Collection
Other additions to the Beat collection include table and floor lights with shades based on water vessels used in India.
High backed chair from The Pivot Collection
The new Pivot collection consists of three rotating pieces of furniture, including a high-backed chair, a curved low-backed chair and a bar stool. These are constructed using an internal metal frame and covered with foam upholstery. Each piece sits on a die-cast aluminium base.
Low backed chair for The Pivot Collection
The Y table has a plain black plastic top and comes in two sizes. A coloured enamel insert can be added.
As Italy’s furniture industry struggles to bounce back after the recession, has Copenhagen regained its place as Europe’s design capital?
During the 1950s and 1960s, furniture enthusiasts from all over Europe and America flocked to Copenhagen to preview designs by Modernists Hans J. Wegner, Arne Jacobsen, Poul Kjaerholm and Finn Juhl – the old masters. Now Danish design is flourishing again.
Work by these designers has recently returned to the fore as the 100th anniversaries of their births have been celebrated.
Wishbone Chair by Hans J. Wegner, 1949, produced by Carl Hansen and Son. Main image: Egg Chair and Stool by Arne Jacobsen, 1958, produced by Republic of Fritz Hansen
Danish design expert Christian Holmsted Olesen, who has curated an upcoming exhibition of work by Wegner at Copenhagen’s Dansk Design Museum, was one of the first to recognise the resurgence. “Here at the museum we have been experiencing it for 15 years now,” he said. “It started with the anniversary in 2002 when Arne Jacobsen would have been 100. Since then Danish design has been very popular again.”
While these grand masters are enjoying as much success now as they were in the mid-twentieth century, new Danish companies have also sprung onto the scene during the last decade and are fast becoming as popular.
The furniture by the masters is targeting the international luxury market, but brands including Hay, Muuto, &tradition, Normann Copenhagen and Menu are producing more affordable furniture. “[These] are all new brands, maybe ten years old, and their concept is to make Danish or Scandinavian design in the known style but a lot cheaper,” said Holmsted Olesen. “I think that’s the reason for their success, because a lot of the Danish design has become too expensive.”
PK24 chair by Poul Kjaerholm, 1965, produced by Republic of Fritz Hansen
Starting a new company in the shade of such a cultural heritage wasn’t easy, said Hay cofounder Rolf Hay.
“It had limitations, coming from a culture with such a strong background because in the beginning we were compared to these architects,” Hay told Dezeen.
“‘Why do a new chair when Arne Jacobsen already did the best chair in the world?’ It was really a struggle to get out of the shadows of the masters, but perhaps it was healthy to be challenged,” he continued.
Hay revealed that inspiration for the company’s concept of collaborating with international designers actually came from Italy. Hay had previously worked with Danish firm Gubi selling designs by Milanese brand Cappellini.
“Cappellini brought the whole world to Italy,” said Hay. “It was the first company to work with BarberOsgerby, the Bouroullecs, and it is still working with Jasper Morrison.”
Ant chair by Arne Jacobsen, 1952, produced by Republic of Fritz Hansen
Hay realised that cost was an issue for Cappellini and saw a gap in the market for similar products with more reasonable price tags: “There was a large group of people who appreciated Cappellini but could not afford it, so that was a starting point for our company. If we could do products on a very high design level but for an affordable price then there would eventually be a market there.”
Other Danish design companies had similar ideas around the same time. This group of contemporary brands that emerged almost simultaneously, aimed at the same high-end low-cost market, are now creating healthy competition amongst themselves.
“In Copenhagen right now it’s quite interesting,” said Hay. “We’re competitors but we have a good understanding and a good relationship with each other.”
Hay has a theory about why they have survived and even thrived during the recession. “It’s maybe not so much about aesthetic, but more about ethic and about business mentality,” said Hay. “These companies are good at making products that clients are demanding.”
The Danish brands’ recession-busting success hasn’t gone unnoticed by the Italian companies. “I know for example that Vitra is studying what Hay is doing because they cannot understand how these companies are expanding as fast as they are,” Holmsted Olesen revealed. “The secret is that they understand that you do not want to pay more than £100 for a chair. They know exactly what the consumer is willing to pay.”
Another factor that could be contributing to the country’s success is the help given to up-and-coming designers. Both local brands and the government nurture talent emerging from Denmark’s design schools.
Young Danish designers Line Depping and Jakob Jørgensen both contribute to Hay’s collections and are also are able to work on their own projects. “We have an agreement that we work for them and have our things in production for them, as well as doing things for galleries and exhibitions,” said Depping.
This balance between working on commercial products and experimental pieces creates optimal relationships for the designers and the brand. “[Hay] know that a lot of good ideas come from the freedom that comes from smaller projects,” said Jørgensen. “Things can appear that are relevant for them so they definitely support that.”
Mirror by Kaschkasch Cologne for Menu
The Danish government also offers a range of grants and financial aids that designers can apply for each year. Further assistance is provided by funded workshop spaces for designers to come and use.
Located in a former warehouse on Copenhagen’s waterfront, the Danish Art Workshops provide facilities including workshops for wood, metal, textiles and other materials that artists and designers can apply to use free of charge for short or long-term residencies. This gives them the opportunity to create large-scale pieces that wouldn’t fit in their own studios, or use specialist equipment with the assistance of trained technicians.
Additionally, the government supports a different set of designers each year to create pieces for the Mindcraft exhibition in Milan during the city’s design week in April. This exhibition promotes notion of craft and focus on quality, something that forms the link through Danish design – from its historical roots all the way to contemporary production.
Cover chair by Thomas Bentzen for Muuto
This national design identity is appreciated worldwide and part of this is maintaining and promoting the idea of high-quality products. “Danish design is more about marketing that about products”, said Rolf Hay. “All these companies have a high-end design profile but they’re good at selling the idea.”
An enduring design tradition and history, healthy competition between business-minded brands and continued support for new talent has kept Denmark’s industry solid while Italy’s appears to be struggling. So is Copenhagen the new Milan?
“I’m going to say yes,” proclaimed Holmsted Olesen. “It’s possible, we’ve done it before. In the 1950s everyone came to Copenhagen to see what happened so of course it’s possible, if we keep doing it right.”
WIRE by Alessandro Zambelli for Seletti is a new line of furniture accessories in painted steel. The mood of the collection is a strange balancing act..
Dutch designer Martijn Rigters created this rippled sofa by forcing a long block of foam through the gap between four hot wires.
The Cutting Edge sofa by Martijn Rigters is a playful take on the methods used by design studios to prototype objects.
Hot wire foam cutting usually involves heating a thin piece of wire to cut through polystyrene quickly. In design studios, this is process is normally controlled very carefully, but Rigters wanted to make the process more random.
“This technique offered the opportunity to explore a new process and experiment with the great three dimensional potential it has,” Rigters said.
The designer created a series of unique shapes out of wire representing the seat and backrest, underside, back and front, then attached them to a wooden frame big enough for a block of polystyrene to pass through.
The wires were connected to batteries, which provided the heat necessary for the polystyrene to be cut cleanly.
Setting the wires in differing profiles to begin with would alter the overall shape of the piece, but the final form and rippling effect was controlled by how the foam was pushed through the gap in the middle.
“All movement of the user guiding the block through the machine is directly translated into a form,” explained Rigters. “This is a very intuitive way to work, because one can react to the form that is created at that exact moment.”
When completed, the couch was covered in a tough polyurea coating, making it suitable for use indoors or outdoors.
The process could be replicated on any scale, with the only limitation being the size of the foam available.
If the Q1 lounge chair looks familiar, that’s because you’ve seen its striking shell shape before… only in architecture, not furniture! Based on Richard Buckminster Fuller’s iconic spherical structure (most commonly used in geodesic domes), the form of the shell has a naturally high load carrying capacity despite being quite simple. Lucky for us, its spherical shape is a natural, comfy fit for the human body no matter which way you lounge! Own it HERE.
– Yanko Design Timeless Designs – Explore wonderful concepts from around the world! Shop CKIE – We are more than just concepts. See what’s hot at the CKIE store by Yanko Design! (Geodesic Seating was originally posted on Yanko Design)
Japanese designer Tokujin Yoshioka will show a glass chair that refracts light around its edges for Italian brand Glas Italia in Milan next month.
The Prism chair by Tokujin Yoshioka is created from sheets of thick high-transparency glass.
The chamfered edges are cut so light bends as it passes through the material, creating a rainbow of colours across the surfaces.
“This creation will be a chair like a shimmering sculpture,” said Yoshioka. “Miraculous expression is brought by the refraction of light.”
Four rectangular sheets fit together to create the seat, with the bevelled edges facing inward.
Yoshioka will present the chair in Milan during the city’s design week, alongside the reflective glass Prism table he has also designed for Glas Italia.
This coat rack by German designers Christine Herold and Katharina Ganz is designed to look like birds perched along a power line.
The Birds in a Row coat rack features pointed peg-like birch hooks that clasp onto a coated aluminium rail.
The designers told Dezeen that they modelled the coat rack on “an abstract picture of a group of birds, sitting in a row, lifting up their beaks”.
The hooks can be twisted around the rail and positioned so they point up at a 45-degree angle to each side. They rest on a ridge that runs along the underside of the pole that prevents them pivoting too far.
The removable and adjusable hooks allow the coat rack to be used from both sides and the large beak-like shapes can also be used to store hats, umbrellas and bags.
Christine Herold and Katharina Ganz created two versions of the storage rack: one that hangs from the ceiling and another that is supported by wooden legs.
When suspended from the ceiling, the rail sits inside teardrop-shaped hangers made from CNC-milled birch to match the pegs.
The white aluminium rail slots onto A-frame birch legs to create the freestanding version, so it resembles electricity pylons.
The base of this table by Japanese designer Kazunaga Sakashita was inspired by trestles found in factories and on construction sites.
Japanese designer Kazunaga Sakashita updated the archetypal trestle table support to make it suitable for use in the home or office, reproducing it in curving tubular steel.
“The trestle in a factory or construction site is very functional, and there are various ways to use it,” said the designer. “Because the top board is only placed on the trestle, you can make it suitable for the space by changing the material and size of the top board,”
A horizontal bar supports the table surface at each end, supported by one angled leg in its centre and a second bar that extends down from one end, along the floor and back up.
A diagonal strut between the bar on the floor and the angled leg stabilises the structure.
The trestle legs are treated with a soft-touch urethane coating which is exposed to ultraviolet rays to give it a hard finish.
An oak top is pictured in combination with the trestles, but Sakashita suggested that the material and size of the surface could be specified by the user.
Trestle-type table that the design was based on
Sakashita is currently producing the trestles himself while seeking a manufacturer.
Because the top board is only place on the trestle, you can use it in a use suitable for the space by changing material and the size of the top board.
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