The Washington Collection for Knoll was originally launched in October and includes two cantilevered side chairs called the Skin and the Skeleton.
Skeleton chair
The collection is very much an exploration of the “body in space” – but on a smaller scale than my architectural work,” said Adjaye.
Skeleton chair
“Knoll has always had an amazing ability to produce furniture that is a distillation of the zeitgeist of the age – it was this relationship between life, space and objects that resonated with my own work. Finding specific conditions, amplifying them and making them aesthetic while giving them the potential to be part of our world is what I am interested in,” he added.
Skeleton chair
The Washington Skin Chair is cast in three parts using injection-moulded nylon, reinforced with glass. The shell and legs are then joined using mortise and tenon joinery and stainless steel fasteners. The legs are reinforced with an aluminium brace that is covered with nylon.
Skin chair
The Washington Skeleton chair is made form die cast aluminium and, like the Skin chair, is cast in three parts and joined using steel fasteners. It comes in various durable painted colours or a copper plated version that allows the chair to tarnish with age.
Skin chair
“We worked very closely with Knoll’s technical team and it was a fascinating learning curve,” explained Adjaye.
Copper-plated Skeleton chair
“Making production furniture is very different to creating objects – and it is not something I had done before,” added Adjaye. “The furniture went through many iterations, studies and tests. To make the cantilevered legs, for example, Knoll developed the material technology to allow the back to flex and the T-junction in the legs has a metal insert to resist stress. As a result, the chair’s form is minimal, yet can withstand 300lb.”
Skeleton chairs
The chairs are on show at the Piazza Bertarelli, Milan. Knoll is also showing new collaborations with London-based designers, Edward Barber & Jay Osgerby, alongside a selection of recently updated pieces by designers, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Florence Knoll, Eero Saarinen, Tobia Scarpa and Marcel Breuer.
The dream of many a design enterprise—the best designers, meaningful materials, Italian production, a community of fans, reinterpretations made by artists—TOG is all of this, and more. “All creators together” is the idea behind this new design…
Milan 2014: Swedish design studio Claesson Koivisto Rune has launched a range of chairs with winged backrests designed to create a “room within a room” in Milan this week.
The Radar Easy chair collection was created for the Italian furniture company Casamania and consists of four pieces, the largest being a chair with a winged back rest designed to create a “radar” effect between two people facing each other.
“The backs create different levels of privacy like a room-within-a-room,” Mårten Claesson from Claesson Koivisto Rune told Dezeen. “The largest and widest back also creates a personal space and silence for the sitter. In a facing pair, your conversation is contained between the two “radars”.”
Each chair has been cast into an upholstered foam-frame with an optional swivel base. They come in various colours and fabrics – including leather – depending on the client’s preferences.
Mårten Claesson said the chairs were “not limited for contract use” and could be used in either a home or an office, in breakout rooms or lobbies.
Product development concept of the Radar Easy chair collection
They are on show in Hall 16 Stand D 39 in Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan this week.
Italian brand Marsotto Edizioni have invited five of the same designers from previous commissions dating back to 2009 to create furniture pieces in the Italian white stone, with an addition of a sixth designer, Phillippe Nigro.
The Working on Marble collection comprises modular, flexible pieces including meeting tables, work surfaces and writing desks.
Agoro by Naoto Fukusawa
London-based Studio Irvine is responsible for the art direction of this year’s project. “Work, as a necessary part of our lives, covers a vast range of activities relating to the intellect, manual skills, the individual and the group. Hence this collection, with its diverse interpretations of surfaces as action tops,” said the studio.
Arena table by Jasper Morrison
British designer Jasper Morrison‘s Arena is a set of large round meeting tables with tapered, broad support columns.
Arena table by Jasper Morrison
Keyboard by Konstantin Grcic is a desk with a curved rotating top extension that allows for different working configurations.
Keyboard by Konstantin Grcic
Naoto Fukasawa has introduced a rectangular and modular meeting table with curved marble panels as legs. The table comes in three parts and fits together as a system, with 45 degree angle corner connections to create a curved opening in the centre.
Agoro by Naoto Fukusawa
Studio Irvine’s Toio writing desk and Isa dressing table both feature the same tapered legs, pairs of which sit at a 45 degree angle to the top.
Toio by Studio Irvine
The writing desk incorporates a groove, which supports a reading stand while the dressing table uses a groove to store cosmetics. The dressing table also features a circular detachable mirror.
Two Mates by Ross Lovegrove
Ross Lovegrove‘s Two Mates chess table comes with curved seats. He has also created two other freestanding chess tables, which stand at different heights.
Mate by Ross Lovegrove
French designer Philippe Nigro’s Rendez Vous reception desk is made to house electrical cables and available in three types, at different heights.
Rendez vous by Philippe Nigro
The exhibition will be on show from the Academia di Belle Arti di Brera in the Brera district in Milan from 8-13 April.
Milan 2014: American furniture company Emeco has revealed a collection of stools and tables made from recycled and reclaimed materials in collaboration with Nendo (+ slideshow).
Called SU, which means simple and plain in Japanese, the collection is being shown at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan this week.
The tabletop is made from high-pressure laminate (HPL). The stool seats come in three materials – reclaimed oak, eco-concrete and recycled polyethylene. The legs to the table and stools are made of reclaimed oak or recycled aluminium in natural or with a black anodized finish.
Oki Sato from Nendo said he was inspired by the American company’s Navy Chair design in making the collection. “The Emeco Navy Chair is “the chair”, and has always been inspiring many architects and designers around the world,” said Sato.
“After roughly two years, we are proud to present a stool, which is strongly linked with the Navy Chair. It is for us, definitely “the stool”.”
The reclaimed oak seat has been sourced from old buildings in the US and carved by Amish craftsmen in Pennsylvania. Magnus Breitling, Vice president of product at Emeco said the wormholes in the oak give the seat “character and uniqueness”.
“We keep the oak seat untreated to allow the colour to change depending on its exposure to the sun, humidity and above all – usage, thus creating its own history,” said Breitling.
The eco or ‘green concrete’ is made from 50 per cent recycled glass bottles and CSA (calcium sulfoaluminate cement), which requires less energy to make.
The recycled polyethylene seats are shaped into the SU seat through rotation moulding and come in red, flint grey and dark charcoal grey.
The stools and tables will be on show until 13 April at the Emeco stand, Hall 20, E09 in Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan.
Here’s some more information from Emeco:
Emeco Announces the SU Collection – Stools and Tables Designed in Collaboration With Nendo
SU Collection features the famous Emeco characteristics of design, engineering and strength, built with recycled and reclaimed materials.
HANOVER, PA – April 8, 2014 – Emeco today announced that they will launch The SU Collection of stools and tables designed in collaboration with Nendo, at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan, Italy, April 8 – 13, at Emeco’s Stand Hall 20, E09. The Japanese concept of ‘su’ comes from traditional Japanese culture, and means simple, plain, minimal. Nendo brought the design aesthetic of ‘SU’ to the collaboration with Emeco, along with the name, for the Emeco SU Collection.
The SU Collection features precise engineering and the use of new, surprising eco-conscious materials. SU has “Emeco bones” the iconic seat of Emeco chairs made since 1944, and is made of reclaimed and recycled materials discovered through ongoing exploration of eco-conscious resources. SU seats come in three new material choices, all of which demonstrate a more environmentally conscious way of doing things, using responsibly selected alternatives of some traditional materials.
Solid reclaimed oak seats have been sourced from old architecture in the U.S.A., and carved into the Emeco seat by Amish craftsmen in Pennsylvania. Every piece is unique with signs of its past life. Eco- Concrete seats are made of Green-Concrete, a revolutionary concept that can replace the energy-consuming traditional concrete used in architecture. Emeco’s eco-concrete SU seat consists of 50% recycled glass bottles and CSA (calcium sulfoaluminate cement) that takes much less energy to make.
Recycled Polyethylene seats, made of 75% postindustrial and 25% post consumer content, and shaped into the SU seat through rotation molding, come in three timeless colour options – red, flint grey and dark charcoal grey. Emeco’s traditional material, recycled aluminium is used to make SU legs with either natural or black anodized finish. Reclaimed oak, as used in the seat, is another choice for the legs.
The design features thin wooden legs, which appear to rest against the sides of the seats.
Longer elements hold the back rests and optional integrated side tables, in a range of heights and sizes.
“The legs that appear to have little to do with the frame are actually the pillars that can be anchored to it and grouped in multiple compositions,” said a statement from Moroso.
Standard two and three-seater sofas can be combined into different arrangements.
Flat and corner back cushions can be added or removed to encompass or separate sections.
A single exaggerated seam runs around the edges of the upright cushions, which are upholstered in wool jersey along with the seats.
The sofas are available in a range of colours with matching throw cushions.
Milan 2014: Venetian designer Luca Nichetto has reimagined a traditional Tyrolean chair for his latest collaboration with Casamania, debuting in Milan this week.
Luca Nichetto‘s La-Dina is a contemporary reinterpretation of traditional wooden chairs from the Dolomite mountain range in west Austria and north-east Italy.
Its name is a pun on Ladin – Ladina in Italian – the language spoken by the people who once built their settlements in the region.
Luca Nichetto has simplified the form, using rounded lines and including a small upside-down triangular hole that punctures the back rest.
The legs are fixed into the solid wood of the seat, which in turn is secured to the backrest using a clamping wedge.
La-Dina is made from ash wood and is available in a range of colours.
The design marks Casamania‘s 30th anniversary and the 10th anniversary of its collaboration with Nichetto.
Competition: Dezeen has teamed up with MVRDV to give readers the chance to win a pink Twin House cushion from the studio’s Vertical Village furniture collection, which launched in Milan this week.
The Twin House cushion is one of 26 colourful foam “houses” that have just been put into production by Dutch architecture studio MVRDV and Belgian furniture label Sixinch.
The cushions were originally designed for the centrepiece of an exhibition in Hamburg about the studio’s Vertical Village research – which examined alternative solutions for apartment blocks in East Asia – but were used as seating by visitors and staff.
The Twin House cushion
“The flexible, durable foam elements became an instant crowd pleaser,” said MVRDV in a statement.
MVRDV decided to develop a furniture collection from these foam elements and chose to make 26 objects in the shape of houses proposed for the Vertical Village.
“The objects are not furniture in the traditional sense, they are more experimental and appeal by being surprising: how does one use a soft house in a living room?” said MVRDV.
The Twin House cushion is shaped like a semi-detached house, with the space in-between the roofs becoming the seat or a cradle for a baby.
The centrepiece of the Vertical Village exhibition in Hamburg
Other pieces in the collection include The Barn, The Factory, The Depot, The Cloud, The T and The Terrace House.
The cushions are made from foam rubber with a PU coating and come in a range of colours. The winner of this competition will receive a pink Twin House model, as pictured.
The Vertical Village furniture is currently on display as a sculpture at Interni‘s event Feeding Ideas for the City at Università degli Studi in Milan.
Due to shipping limitations, this competition is only open to readers in the EEC countries however the cushions are available to buy on the Vertical Village website.
Competition closes 7 May 2014. One winner will be selected at random and notified by email. The winner’s name will be published in a future edition of our Dezeen Mail newsletter and at the top of this page.
Here’s some information from MVRDV:
What started as a radical urban vision for the densification of the East Asian Metropolis has now turned into an iconic series of furniture, bringing vision and innovation to your home. The pieces are available in a wide variety of shapes and colours – allowing you to tailor your own personal Vertical Village. The product is flexible, waterproof, seamless, hygienic and comes in a range of striking and sophisticated colours. The objects are made of foam rubber with a PU coating, which is 100% recyclable and safe according to DIN EN71-3 standards for Children’s toys.
After the Vertical Village exhibition in Hamburg, a 4 metre tall installation made of 80 of these foam elements returned to the MVRDV offices, it was spontaneously used by the staff and visitors as furniture becoming part of office life. In daily changing settings it is used as seats, waiting lounge, playground, pedestal for models and even for the odd deadline powernap. And so a furniture collection was born as a by-product of urban research. The 26 objects are in the shape of houses proposed for the Vertical Village and one can sit, lounge, work and play. The coated foam is resilient and can withstand office life, family life and even outdoor use.
The centrepiece was made from 80 foam elements
And why not put some unexpected architecture in an interior? A semi-detached house, a volume with a gap or a cloud shape? The objects are not furniture in the traditional sense, they are more experimental and appeal by being surprising: How does one use a soft house in a living room?
Under the title ‘The Vertical Village – Individual, Informal, Intense’ the research project explored the rapid urban transformation of East Asia, the qualities of urban villages, and the potential to develop much denser, vertical settlements as a radical alternative to the identical block-like architecture of standardised units and their consequences for city life. The research was exhibited in Taipei, Seoul, Sao Paulo and Hamburg, usually accompanied by a large sculpture of a possible Vertical Village. After metal and plastic shapes in Seoul and Taipei in Hamburg the foam was the best solution for the 4 meter tall sculpture, leading to this furniture application.
The foam objects are in the shape of houses proposed for the Vertical Village
The furniture is available from April 7th online at www.vertical-village.com. The sculpture will be displayed at Interni’s Feeding New Ideas for the City, at Università degli Studi in Milan, in collaboration with Viabizzuno lighting.
Milan 2014: explore the space created by Marcel Wanders and Casper Vissers in Milan to showcase the new range from their brand Moooi, with this interactive showroom.
Moooi has taken over an old warehouse in Milan’s Tortona district to create an atmospheric showroom.
Products have been set up in clusters, as if in rooms of a house, against giant architectural and interior photographs by Massimo Listri that help create smaller spaces in the large building.
“We implemented something which is interesting for interior designers to see,” Marcel Wanders told Dezeen.
“If you look at all these objects they are a bit displaced. They should be in houses and projects and they should live in surroundings which have their own kind of depth and logic,” said Wanders.
The exhibition is accompanied by eerie sounds created by Dutch musician Fontane, to emphasise the surreal nature of exhibiting home furnishings in an industrial space.
The ability to create a bespoke atmosphere for the showroom is one of the reasons why Moooi presents away from the Salone Internazionale del Mobile, the trade fair taking place on the other side of the city.
“Every year we decide not to [go there] because the fair makes it really difficult to make a really wonderful show,” Wanders explained.
“The limitations of the fair are tremendous, simply to get a nice space. Besides that even if you get a nice space then it’s a square with nothing. You get a floor. It’s just not the right thing for us at the moment.”
Known for its wide-ranging palette of colours, Kvadrat‘s felt-like fabric was originally created by Danish painter and graphic artist Finn Sködt in 1984.
“We didn’t choose the name for nothing, we used it because it gave some inspiration as to which colours we could put into the scheme,” said Sködt. “Every colour is divine if you ask me, every colour is nice. It’s only a question of using them right or wrong.”
Lasagne by Philippe Nigro
The designers were invited to create their own one-off piece using the fabric, which comes in 56 colours. “Divina is so intense that it is almost like paint, or something that has been sprayed onto a surface,” said Anders Byriel, CEO of Kvadrat. “You could not have a colour that is more vivid or clearer than this.”
Nesting Hexagons by Werner Aisslinger
German designer Werner Aisslinger‘s Nesting Hexagons reference Joe Colombo’s 1969 Tube chair, a piece comprising hollow cylinder modules fixed together in different formations, which can be dismantled and used separately like cushions.
Here, Aisslinger uses the hexagon shape as a basis to create a piece designed for lounging, which can then be stored by slotting each hexagon inside of each other. “Our concept came from the idea of a picnic, with a blanket in the grass and pillows around,” said Aisslinger. “The hexagons are ideal for lolling around or relaxing on the ground, both indoors and outdoors.”
Afternoon Nap by Martino Gamper
Working between art and design, London-based Martino Gamper has created Afternoon Nap, his second project with Divina, which features upholstered solid geometric volumes in various coloured triangulations of the fabric.
“For me, this simple shape, mixed with the complex and colourful fabric, creates a landscape where I could imagine having an afternoon nap,” said Gamper.
Pli Bleu, Pli Violet by Robert Stadler
Austrian designer Robert Stadler‘s interpretation entitled Pli Bleu and Pli Violet uses two very similar shades of blue, emphasised by the folds in the piece. “My intention was to show the quality of the textile in the most pure and direct way possible,” said Stadler. “The two pleated monochromes catch the ambient light in a subtle way.”
Divina Chandelier by Lindsey Adelman
New York designer Lindsey Adelman has created a chandelier comprised of thin brightly coloured strips of the Divina fabric layered on top of one another while London designer Max Lamb has designed a series of oversized smocks.
A special exhibition showcasing 22 contemporary interpretations of Divina by international designers
‘We didn’t choose the name for nothing – we used it because it gave some inspiration as to which colours we could put into the scheme. Every colour is divine, if you ask me – every colour is nice. It’s only a question of using them right or wrong.’ Finn Sködt.
Thread Wrapping Architecture by Anton Alvarez
In celebration of Divina, one of its most iconic textiles, Kvadrat has invited 22 international designers to reinterpret the fabric in the context of contemporary design and to create a one-of-a-kind piece. The exhibition will be presented in Milan during the Salone Internazionale del Mobile, 8 – 13 April 2014.
East-West Fan by Jonas Merian
Divina is known for its extraordinary range of colours, first created in 1984 by the Danish painter and graphic artist Finn Sködt and regularly updated by him ever since. It is a full-cloth textile with a smooth, directionless and uniform surface, very similar to the properties of felt.
Bagpacker by Silvia Knüppel
Divina translates as ‘heavenly,’ or ‘divine,’ and the name has been chosen because of the way colours can be expressed in the material. It is one of the finest products in Kvadrat’s range for showing-off colours in all their glory. The textile comes in three different variations: Divina (56 colours), Divina Melange (25 colours) and Divina MD (27 colours).
Guadalupe Daybed by Bethan Laura Wood
Finn Sködt, now 70, still continues his practice from his studio in Denmark; he is most noted for his instinctive understanding of colour. Sködt first worked with Kvadrat in the 1970s on their visual identity, soon after the company was founded, and later designed patterns and colour ranges for textiles such as Divina.
Daybed by Muller van Severen
Designers and Curators
Designers selected for the Divina exhibition include Lindsey Adelman, Werner Aisslinger, Anton Alvarez, Big-Game, Duangrit Bunnag, Gonçalo Campos, Jonas’ Design, François Dumas, Martino Gamper, Graphic Thought Facility, Richard Hutten, Silvia Knüppel, Max Lamb, Peter Marigold, Studio Minale-Maeda, Philippe Nigro, Klemens Schillinger, Muller Van Severen, Jerszy Seymour, Robert Stadler, Katharina Wahl and Bethan Laura Wood.
Divina Calendar by Graphic Thought Facility
Curators include Njusja de Gier, Richard Hsu, Hans Maier-Aichen, Yves Marbrier and Constance Rubini. Kvadrat celebrates Divina during Salone Internazionale del Mobile, Milan 2014.
Stripe Daybed by Big-Game
‘We are delighted to be celebrating our iconic Divina textile coloured by Finn Sködt, a great friend and collaborator who has lent his painterly eye to Kvadrat since our early days in the 1970s. Over 30 years Divina has continued to be one of our most successful textiles, with a texture that lends itself to an intense and vibrant representation of colour. It is exciting to see the interpretations of this diverse group of contemporary designers and to pay tribute to Divina’s incredible range.’ Anders Byriel, CEO of Kvadrat.
Garlands by Studio Minale-Maeda
The Divina exhibition follows on from the success of the Hallingdal 65 exhibition in Milan in 2012, inspired by one of the company’s first and most popular textiles, designed in 1965 by Nanna Ditzel. A special book with an essay by Hettie Judah and edited by Henrietta Thompson will accompany the exhibition.
Obese Door, Voluptuous Door by Katharina Wahl
In addition to celebrating Divina a new collection of knitted fabrics by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec will be launched in Kvadrat’s Milan showroom. The company’s sister brand, Danskina will showcase a new collection of rugs created under its newly appointed Design Director Hella Jongerius; Kinnasand will open a new Milan showroom designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Toyo Ito; and the launch of Kvadrat’s new textile collection with Raf Simons (Creative Director, Dior) will be celebrated with the Italian retailer Spotti.
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