Hasta La Ideas

Now that my son has outgrown his Jumperoo, my husband and I have been on the lookout for a child-size chair. Like most toddlers, my 15-month-old son is insistent upon asserting his independence, and so he wants his own chair. If you try to sit on the same chair or couch he’s on, he’ll go to great lengths to get you to sit somewhere other than his piece of furniture.

We considered getting the Kapsule Chair because it is cute, inexpensive ($49), and doubles as toy storage. Ultimately, we didn’t buy it because when our son outgrows it in a couple years, the chair becomes another thing cluttering up the house.

In the end, we decided to get the Candu Chair, which can also be transformed into a playtable/desk, bedside table, easel, step stool, rocking chair, and magazine/book rack:

It’s 21″ x 18″ x 18″ and weighs 16 lbs. It’s certainly more expensive than the Kapsule — the Candu Chair is $125 on Amazon — but it’s a piece that should have utility for at least the next 17 years. For families like ours that live in small spaces, the more multi-functional the furniture, the better.

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Beloved of middle class parents everywhere – if not their kids – wooden toys have largely looked to the past. With oilrigs, satellites and container ships, Papa Foxtrot is hoping to change all that.

Papa Foxtrot will be a new toy brand from London-based design studio Postlerferguson. As a taste of things to come, the studio has launched its Wooden Giants series, comprising models of the Emma Maersk, Arctic Princess and TI Asia, three of the largest cargo ships in the world.

“We are planning to take today’s most fascinating and amazing technological achievements, like submarines, satellites, windmills, oilrigs amongst others and make them part of a growing collection of wooden toys which we will produce in small batches (for now),” explains Postlerferguson’s Martin Postler. “The idea is to make the ‘normal’ become grand again, to celebrate technology with almost childish optimism.”

The container ship and liquid gas tanker can be dissassembled and their cargo re-arranged.

Postlerferguson are exhibiting the large scale protoypes shown here in the group show Translations at the London Design Festival (details here) – half-size versions at around 40cm long will go on sale for between £40 and £60. They seem a bit too nice for kids though. Details here.

Le constructeur Peugeot vient de dévoiler un concept de voiture-électrique avec de véritables performances d’accélération, à l’occasion des 200 ans de la marque française. Un design futuriste et une propulsion électrique à découvrir en visuels dans la suite de l’article.

Previously on Fubiz

• Nissan Leaf – Polar Bear
• GE Electric Vehicle Charger
• Renault Dezir Concept

Japanese architects Geneto used screens decorated with grooves to divide this Tokyo apartment.

Called AZB, the project involved renovating an apartment for rental, and comprises a black bedroom and white multiple-use space separated by sliding screens.

More screens are used to hide or reveal the kitchen equiment and and storage.

More stories about Geneto »

Photographs are by Takumi Ota.

The information below is from Geneto:

AZB apartment

The switch of ordinary and extraordinary life

For this renovation project in a rental apartment block, we had many limitations. Enclosing only 45m2 floor space and being 40 years old, the structure did not allow us much scope to alter the layout.

We were also restricted by the fact that the entire North façade is glass.

Additionally given the layout of the services, drastic alteration of the bathroom was not possible.

These constraints provided us with our point of departure.

This project was our first rental space and, due to the multi-user nature of its use, required a highly objective design approach.

But were we to acquiesce to public opinion, or unsympathetically impose our own ideals?

It was imperative that the design cater for a variety of users, so in order to solve this conundrum we considered the bare essentials for living and saw how those cold be provided for.

The apartment consists only of a bedroom and a multi-use space.

The space is enclosed by sliding panels that shift into place to conceal those objects which we find commonplace and banal. They convert the everyday into the extraordinary.

The potential of fittings

While considering the design of the panels, we looked to a traditional Japanese architectural application called Fusuma.

Fusuma is the art of decorating room dividing panels with scenes of nature to create the impression that one is living outdoors enveloped in nature. We abstracted this concept and applied it to the dividing panels.The composition of lines draws inspiration from the silhouette of the surrounding mountains and from the city skyline – which has become our new nature.

Click above for larger image

By this we have elevated that which tends to be lifeless to a new level of meaning, rich with emotion. Yet the Fusama do not only provide emotional needs of the space but also the functional. The carved lines are at once handles and crevices for coat hangers which would otherwise protrude from the panels and compromise the simplicity of the space.

Click above for larger image

This use of the Fusuma creates a balance between the disparity of function and emotional impact.

See also:

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More interiors stories	More about Geneto	More about Tokyo

Après la proposition de redesign des distributeurs à billets, le studio Ideo vient de lancer cette vidéo qui présente les expériences et innovations autour de l’avenir du livre. Plusieurs valeurs ajoutées à venir pour les lecteurs connectés les-uns aux-autres. Explications dans la suite.

Previously on Fubiz

• Radical ATM Redesign
• Pop-up Book by Benjamin Lacombe
• Future of Screen Technology