Hasta La Ideas

The Y Stools are an exploration of the relationship between wood and metal. The Y Stools are constructed from steel combined with American Ash wood tu..

University of Brighton graduate Josh Bitelli has made a series of furniture and vases from asphalt and road-marking paint (+movie).

The Palmeira bench, cabinet and chair comprise asphalt moulded by hand over steel pipes while warm and pliable. The seams of the Repaired Vessels are defined with yellow paint.

Each was made with the help of workers at a road-resurfacing site.

Here’s some more information from Bitelli:

Palmeira Bench, Cabinet, Chair and Repaired Vessels in asphalt and line paint

The complex web of roads spanning and dissecting Britain, like the railways, support and connect all other industries.

If laid well, roads have a lifespan of fifteen years. While these esoteric events are integral to the smooth running of everyday life, they are seen as little more than an inconvenience.

I have borrowed tools, materiality process and knowledge from these craftsmen. The manipulation of this very industrial material is a sort of speculative playfulness that could be applied to all other industrial activity.

While hinting at other lost potential, I direct a looking glass to the people behind these events and the energy that is spent to keep something seamless.

French designer Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance based this bookcase for design brand Meta on the spiralling shape of an ammonite fossil.

Books and objects of various sizes can be accommodated in the cubes of the bookcase, which gently decrease in size as it curls around. The patina of the steel changes as the cubes become smaller, moving from black to silvery grey.

Meta was launched in 2005 when London- and New York-based Mallett Antiques began commissioning designers to produced contemporary pieces. See all our stories about the company here.

See more stories about Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance »
See all our stories about bookcases »

Here’s some information from the designer:

This project results from a discussion with Meta who disclosed a wish to be able to have a piece of furniture to accommodate varying scales and styles of book and object collections in harmony. I designed this shelf inspired by the composition principles of fractal forms. A patina with a gradation of steel colours lends itself to the spiral composition of the object, bestowing it with a certain lightness in spite of its actual weight. The wealth of this project rests upon the interaction between the content and the receptacle.

Named after the designer’s father, an architect, “The Howard” is an all-weather, stack-able bar stool, constructed entirely of welded steel with a pow..

Hackney designer Mathias Hahn has created this oak chair referencing traditional alpine furniture for London company Another Country.

Another Chair combines solid timber with thin plywood shells for a robust but lightweight structure.

The oak chair is available in a natural finish and four other colours – blue, beige, cream and black.

Hahn is part of OKAY Studio, based round the corner from Dezeen in Stoke Newington. See all our Designed in Hackney stories here and find our more about Designed in Hackney Day here.

See all our stories about Mathias Hahn »
See all our stories about Another Country »

Photographs are by David Brook.

Here’s more information from the designer:

Another Chair for Another Country

Being asked to develop a concept for a chair for Another Country, my idea was to capture the strong typology of a traditional alpine chair in order to transform it into a contemporary piece of furniture. The result is a chair that inherits the utility centered identity of a solid rural piece while developing its own character through the use of a more slender and sophisticted construction.

Combining traditionally wedged elements of solid timber with thin plywood shells leads to a craft based yet light and slightly elegant chair. Another Chair is supposed to function in various domestic environments. Serving well next to a kitchen table as well as comfortably living in company of a dining table. Carrying the spirit of Another Country, it goes well together with the existing ranges while bringing its own character to the brand.

Another chair is available in oak, as well as in a set of four monochrome coloured finishes.

Another Chair is a versatile, comfortable and hardworking seating solution. The familiar aesthetic and craft-based construction of a traditional alpine chair has been refined, resulting in a design that is truly ‘contemporary craft’. Utility and longevity are key features of Another Chair.

Designed in Hackney map:

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Key:

Blue = designers
Red = architects
Yellow = brands
Green = street art

See a larger version of this map

Designed in Hackney is a Dezeen initiative to showcase world-class architecture and design created in the borough, which is one of the five host boroughs for the London 2012 Olympic Games as well as being home to Dezeen’s offices. We’ll publish buildings, interiors and objects that have been designed in Hackney each day until the games this summer.

More information and details of how to get involved can be found at www.designedinhackney.com.