Milan 2014: architect Zaha Hadid has cantilevered a series of elongated strips of black granite to create a fluid storage unit for Italian brand CITCO.
Zaha Hadid lengthened the interconnected elements of the Tela Shelving for CITCO to make the heavy stone look as weightless as possible.
“Tela is a shelving system characterised by an interesting dichotomy: the solidity of the black granite of which it is composed seemingly dissipates with the elongated cantilevers,” said Hadid.
Shelves are connected to each other by sloping sections that support the cantilevers on both sides, so each of the three levels looks like a wavy line when viewed straight on.
This group of connections is offset from the centre of the unit and make the shelves appear to have been pulled up from a single flat piece of stone.
“At the centre of the configuration, its structural core, are the interweaved shelves which appear to open and unfold from a single surface to follow parallel trajectories,” Hadid said.
Milan 2014: British designer Max Lamb developed a multicoloured engineered marble for Dzek, which was used to build furniture that appears to merge with walls of the same material for an installation in Milan.
Max Lamb was approached by London design brand Dzek to re-examine the production of man-made stone surfaces and came up with a material called Marmoreal that combines coloured marble with a polyester binder to create a durable stone for architectural applications.
“We invited Max to examine agglomerate stones such as terrazzo and question how he would design and use one consistent with his practice known for its quixotic craftsmanship, disciplined logic, and a measured exuberance deeply rooted in materiality,” said Dzek founder Brent Dzekciorius.
Rather than the small chips of stone embedded in typical terrazzo, Lamb chose to celebrate the natural surface detail of marble by including large chunks in the mix for his manmade material.
Marmoreal means “real marble” in Italian and is used to describe materials or objects that resemble marble. The four types of marble used in Lamb’s stone come from the quarries around Verona in northern Italy, which are famous for processing marble.
Green Verde Alpi, ochre-yellow Giallo Mori, and red Rosso Verona variants were selected to contrast with a background of white Bianco Verona marble.
Combining these stones with a small amount of polyester resin results in a multicoloured material that is stronger and less porous than natural marble.
“Composed of four historically significant Veronese marbles, Marmoreal is a material exploration that celebrates the individual qualities of these stones while acknowledging that the sum of its parts makes for something far more compelling,” explained Dzekciorius.
The material can be used to produce tiles or components for furniture, like the six pieces developed by Lamb to showcase the product’s capabilities.
These include a chair, bookcase, low coffee table, side table, shelf and a dining table or desk, all produced from simple geometric blocks of the engineered marble.
At its installation during last week’s Salone Internazionale del Mobile, Dzek presented the furniture in a space lined with tiles of Marmoreal that made it hard to distinguish the furniture from the walls.
Dzek focuses on collaborating with architects, designers and artists to develop architectural materials that can be used as the basis for product collections. The Marmoreal project is the first to be completed by the company.
So maybe no one else will want to sit on your dirty clothes, but you can reward your bad behavior with the Martino Hamper! It’s a combination chair and laundry basket that is only usable when you’ve neglected your laundry duties. It’s a humorous exploration at impromptu design inspired by the fast paced furniture collage style of Martino Gamper.
Milan 2014: Slovenian designer Nika Zupanc has created a collection of furniture and products for London design label Sé, influenced by Modernism and sporting motifs (+ slideshow).
Zupanc designed pieces including an armchair, sofa, cabinet, table lamp and a mirror for the collection, which is the third to be launched by Sé since it was founded in 2007.
Sé cofounder Pavlo Schtakleff first came across Zupanc’s work in 2011 and said he was keen to work with her because of her “distinct design language”, but also because he wanted to work with more female designers.
“I was particularly interested in collaborating with a female designer,” Schtakleff said. “Sometimes overlooked within the industry, I felt this would introduce a fresh perspective to the collection; however Nika’s creativity and approach spoke for themselves.”
For this collection, Zupanc drew on the simplicity of 1950s Modernist furniture and combined this stylistic reference with forms intended to evoke a fictional private sports club.
“With Collection III, I wanted to blend timeless elegance, sensitivity and tenderness with a splash of smoky, determined and even masculine reality,” explained the designer.
Materials including marble, brass and wood are used throughout the collection to add a sense of luxury and emphasise the craftsmanship involved in the production of the pieces.
The collection includes a dressing table – the first to be produced by Sé – which features a mirror comprising two offset intersecting circles and a straight central section that provide reflections from different angles.
A curving sofa upholstered in a textured gold fabric is supported by solid brass legs, while mirrors are framed in metallic laurel wreaths in reference to the prizes awarded to athletes in ancient Greece.
A monumental cabinet featuring a grid of shelves behind curved glass doors is embellished with brass details, including handles formed from interconnecting circles.
Marble-topped tables of different heights with slender metal legs can be grouped together as a family.
Some of the rectangular tables feature ceramic surfaces with raised compartments that surround containers topped with spherical handles.
A ceramic table lamp houses its light source inside a dome-shaped shade with a metallic interior. This joins the Full Moon Lamp, which was first exhibited last year and features a round, flat light source mounted on an adjustable arm.
Sé presented the new products at Spazio Rossana Orlandi in Milan last week. The brand’s previous two collections were designed by Jaime Hayon and Damien Langlois-Meurinne.
In the garden of the Case Study House, Eames Demetrios—grandson of Charles and Ray Eames—settled in a shell chair to share stories of his family heritage and legacy, architectural preservation and the world travels he undertook…
Milan 2014: industrial designer Konstantin Grcic has created a birch chair with a circular seat and splayed legs, his first design for Finnish furniture company Artek.
Grcic‘s circular Rival chair for Artek incorporates a swivel function and has four splayed legs milled from solid birch.
“Grcic designed legs milled from one piece of solid birch,” said a statement from Artek. “This technique has recently been used in a number of chairs, resulting in the wood taking on a fluid quality more like moulded plastic than timber.”
Laminated birch is used for the arms and the backrest, formed from one curved element, as well as for the vertical supports holding this piece in place.
It comes in a high and low-back version, with a choice of upholstery in a three-dimensional textile or leather for the seat. Colour options include white, black, and red, as well as natural wood.
Konstantin Grcic’s Rival is designed with people working from home in mind.
In its use of materials, Rival reflects its roots in the legacy of Artek, with a mix of solid birch for the legs and laminated birch for the arms and back, and in the circular geometry of the seat. But it also has a technical finesse, which transforms it into an entirely modern piece of furniture. The swivel function offers a psychological clue as to the purpose of the chair – a multifunctional task chair for contemporary living.
Grcic designed legs milled from one piece of solid birch. This technique has recently been used in a number of chairs, resulting in the wood taking on a fluid quality more like moulded plastic than timber. But Grcic has maintained a more conventional form that reflects the materiality of birch. The birch of the back and the arms is displayed in a saw-cut lamella.
For Grcic, designing a chair works on a number of levels. There is the choice of materials, and it was clear that for the Rival, birch would play an important part. There is the home office typology, a reflection of a contemporary approach to life. And third is what might be called the grammar of construction, the way in which a piece is put together.
The first incarnation of Rival is an armchair with a low (KG001) and a high (KG002) back version, a seat in a choice of a three-dimensional textile or leather upholstery, available in a range of colours.
Delicate, subtly hued earth tones pervaded seemingly every facet of design in almost every pocket of Milan last week. But the Salone Internazionale del Mobile and its numerous offshoots weren’t wholly packed with rich pastels and copper-congruent colors; like Americans’ favorite (and impossible to find in Italy) gelato topping, bright…
Milan 2014: Dutch studio Scholten & Baijings has designed a series of marble tables decorated with engraved geometric patterns that contrast with the natural veined surface of the stone.
Disassembled tables
Scholten & Baijings created the Solid Patterns series for Italian marble producer Luce di Carrara and used different types of marble from the company’s quarry in Tuscany to produce five unique pieces.
Disassembled tables
“The collection is inspired by the uniqueness of marble quarried from the depths of the Apuan Alps,” said the designers. “Designing was all about expressing the various characteristics of the marble in a single form, merging mass, colour, unique line patterns and circular shapes.”
Dinner Table
Thin table tops with irregular rounded edges combine with bases shaped as columns, truncated cones, faceted blocks or fluid curving forms.
In some cases, Scholten & Baijings applied its signature geometric patterns to the table tops, while other examples feature lines engraved into the bases.
Low Table 2
“Adding grid patterns to the designs has created a contemporary look that enhances the contrast between the graphics and the crystalline marble patterns,” the designers added.
Small Table 1
The largest table in the series can be used as a dining or conference table. It features a base made from a single block of white-beige marble, embellished with a subtle pattern of vertical lines.
Two low coffee tables, one produced from brown-beige Lericy marble and another from a pink-hued stone, feature criss-crossing diagonal lines covering their top surfaces.
Small Table 2
One of two taller tables for seating three to four people has a base made from a hollowed-out block of grey marble with a pattern of vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines. A similar pattern applied to the other table’s base emphasises the accuracy of its faceted form.
The collection was presented at Spazio Rossana Orlandi in Milan during last week’s Salone Internazionale del Mobile.
Milan 2014: a teaspoon that follows a cup around a table and a clock that mimics the actions of the person in front of it were among projects presented by students from Swiss university ECAL in Milan (+ movie).
Based around the title Delirious Home, ECAL‘s Bachelor of Industrial Design and Media & Interaction Design students explored alternatives to the idea of the electronically connected smart home by creating products with more tangible behaviours.
Broken Mirror by Guillaume Markwalder and Aurélia von Allmen
“Technology has become smart but without a sense of humour, let alone quirky unexpected behaviour,” explained the project’s leaders Alain Bellet and Chris Kabel in a statement.
“This lack of humanness became the starting point to imagine a home where reality takes a different turn, where objects behave in an uncanny way,” they added.
Mr Time by Léa Pereyre, Claire Pondard and Tom Zambaz
The projects employ sensor-based technology to enhance the interaction between user and product, encouraging people to touch them, listen to them, blow on them or move in front of them to see how they react.
Guillaume Markwalder and Aurélia von Allmen’s Broken Mirror features a round surface made from a sheet of wrinkled reflective material that is pulled taught to show a clear reflection when someone approaches it.
Mr Time by Léa Pereyre, Claire Pondard and Tom Zambaz is a clock that shows the correct time until someone stands in front of it, at which point the hands follow the position of the user’s arms.
Bonnie & Clyde by Romain Cazier, Anna Heck and Leon Laskowski
Bonnie & Clyde by Romain Cazier, Anna Heck and Leon Laskowski produces a playful interaction between a coffee cup and teaspoon.
The cup has a blue interior surface that is tracked by a camera suspended above the table, which sends a signal to a magnet mounted to a mechanism under the table surface. When the cup is moved, the magnet also moves to the same spot and causes the spoon to follow it.
Il Portinaio by Anne-Sophie Bazard, Tristan Caré and Léonard Golay
Il Portinaio by Anne-Sophie Bazard, Tristan Caré and Léonard Golay is a curtain of suspended threads that reacts to the presence of someone standing in front of it. A disembodied hand moves along a raised track to their location and draws back a section of the curtain so they can walk through.
Voodoo by Megan Elisabeth Dinius, Timothée Fuchs, Antoine Furstein and Bastien Girschig
Voodoo by Megan Elisabeth Dinius, Timothée Fuchs, Antoine Furstein and Bastien Girschig facilitates a tactile interaction between people sitting in two armchairs by making one of the chairs shudder and vibrate when someone moves in the other one.
Ostinati by Iris Andreadis, Nicolas Nahornyj and Jérôme Rütsche
Iris Andreadis, Nicolas Nahornyj and Jérôme Rütsche designed a series of containers called Ostinati that can be tipped over and spin on the edges of their bases thanks to embedded gyroscopes.
The Delicious Bells by Caroline Buttet, Louisa Carmona, Margaux De Giovannini and Antonio Quirarte
The Delicious Bells by Caroline Buttet, Louisa Carmona, Margaux De Giovannini and Antonio Quirarte turn dining into an aural experience by projecting noise from speakers embedded in the handles of glass cloches when the cloches are raised.
Chairoscuro by Léa Pereyre, Claire Pondard and Tom Zambaz
Touching the shadows of lamp shades projected onto a wall in Léa Pereyre, Claire Pondard and Tom Zambaz’s Chairoscuro installation causes the corresponding light to turn on and off.
Windblower by Victor Férier, Ludovica Gianoni and Daniele Walker
Victor Férier, Ludovica Gianoni and Daniele Walker designed a fan attached to a smaller version that users blow on to start the device.
Cactunes by Pierre Charreau, Martin Hertig and Pauline Lemberger
Cactunes by Pierre Charreau, Martin Hertig and Pauline Lemberger invites people to touch a series of cacti that each emit a different sound on contact.
Cactunes by Pierre Charreau, Martin Hertig and Pauline Lemberger
The project was presented at Spazio Orso 16 in Milan’s Brera district during the Salone Internazionale del Mobile last week.
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