Hasta La Ideas

Product news: despite its name, this chair by Dutch designer Reinier de Jong is made from old wooden broom handles.

STEEL, which Reinier de Jong will launch at trade fair imm cologne next week, is made from the reclaimed handles of brooms, rakes, shovels and other tools.

The handles have acquired a darkened patina from years of use, but clean wood is visible where they’ve been cut.

The designer is also asking people to donate their old brooms to be made into chairs, and for each usable metre of wood donated he’ll give one euro to charity.

A second version of the chair has also been produced from new white handles.

We’ve featured a few projects by the same designer, including a yellow table with angular legs and a chair that can be used any way up.

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Photographs are by Peter van Dijk.

Here’s some more information from the designer:

Dutch designer Reinier de Jong presents a new chair named STEEL, surprisingly made of… wooden handles.

The chair will be on show together with a new version of the acclaimed REK bookcase and REK coffee table from January 14 to 20, 2013 in the stand of Reinier de Jong at the IMM Cologne.

Soil, rain, hands, air, sunlight. Used broom handles show traces of their former use by their patina. STEEL chair is made from handles of brooms, rakes, shovels etc. The chair gives the wood a third life after it has been taken from its original tree and turned into a tool handle. Another version of the chair is made from new, white handles.

The patina has formed itself around the handle like a new bark, as it were. Colour and texture depend on how and where the tool was used. Craftsmen in the Netherlands work the collected handles to turn them into a folding chair. New, clean wood becomes visible at the places where the wood is cut.

The cut-outs form a natural, concave shape where one gets in contact with the chair: the seat and the back rest. The chair has a simple and modest yet refined shape which reflects the everyday nature of its original components.

The STEEL chair is made of different types of wood (ramin, beech, ash), depending on the supply. You can also contribute to this chair. Donate your old wooden handles from brooms, rakes, shovels, flagpoles, banisters etc, as long as they are 28 or 29 mm in diameter.

For each usable metre of old handles, 1 euro will be donated to charity. Or you can donate your handles to have them turned into a chair for yourself. One chair contains approximately 10 metres of handles.

Along with the new STEEL chair, Reinier de Jong will also present both REK bookcase and REK coffee table at the IMM furniture fair in Cologne from January 14 to 20, 2013. A brand new version of the bookcase with recycled HPL will be on show. The Dewar Glassware and the Copper Lights by designer David Derksen will also be exhibited in the stand.

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Reinier de Jong appeared first on Dezeen.

Product news: design studio Ryan Harc has created a series of modular stools that fit together to create different pieces of furniture.

The Tea stools feature an overhang on either side, which the user can place objects on, hang objects from or simply grip onto. “We thought typical stools provided limited space,” says one of the designers, Ryan Yoon. “We came up with a simple idea: adding more space on both sides so that we can put or hang some objects on the additional spaces.”

The resulting ‘T’ shape means the units fit together in different formations to create diverse shapes. “It allows you some creativity,” he says, adding that as many modules as desired can be combined to create a bench, a table or a desk. The pieces are made out of pine wood with curved edges for comfort and grip.

The limited-edition stools are available to buy directly from the designers.

RYAN HARC was founded in 2009 by Ryan Yoon and Harc Lee and is now based in London.

Other stools we’ve featured on Dezeen include A-shaped stools which slot together to make a bench and a stool with legs inspired by skateboards.

See all our stories about stools »
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Ryan Harc appeared first on Dezeen.

Making the rounds on the web this week, a charming set of light fixtures inject sleek design—and fun—into the realm of bottle lamps, which can run the risk of looking like DIY kitsch. Animal Farm, a series of abstract pig, giraffe, penguin, hippo and elephant figures made from upcycled…

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A spiral staircase climbs the all-timber facade of this house in Amsterdam by Dutch studio Egeon Architecten (+ slideshow).

Located in one of the artificial island communities of Ijburg, the family house has three storeys that include living rooms at ground level, bedrooms on the middle floor and an office on the top floor.

The outdoor staircase is tucked into a recess in the front wall and leads up to a balcony on the uppermost floor, providing a separate route into the office that doesn’t trail through the house.

“The house is situated with a superb view to the south,” architect Egon Kuchlein told Dezeen, explaining his decision to place the office on this level.

Egeon Architecten laid cedar strips horizontally and vertically across the facade and also clad the window shutters so that most openings can be camouflaged.

At ground level, the rear wall is replaced with a row of floor-to-ceiling windows that open the living room out to a garden behind.

Many buildings have been constructed in the new residential district of Ijburg in recent years and others we’ve featured include a house with a glazed rear facade and a house that is partly clad with dark-stained wood.

See more houses in the Netherlands »

Photography is by Chiel de Nooyer.

Here are a few more details from Egeon Architecten:

Villa Rieteiland-oost’ – a spacious detached house on the commuting Rieteiland East, IJburg, Amsterdam

Clear almost mathematically devised private house carried out in wood and glass. Controlled elaboration, consequently carried out in interior and exterieur.

To the traditional arrangement of living on the ground floor and sleeping on the upper floors a floor is added for working from home. The ground floor has a glass facade with large sliding doors on the garden side, so that the residents can benefit most from the view. The bedroom floor is more open to the inside, the outside more closed. The floor with the office and consultation room has views all-around. Open / closed / open.

The timber frame house is built from fair and sustainable materials, has a heat pump and low temperature underfloor heating, natural ventilation, high insulation values of roof walls and floor, special heat-resistant glass, a sedum roof, attention to thermal bridging details and orientation. As a result, low level energy consumption realized.

Floor area: 225 m2, capacity: 700m3
Ground floor: living room, dining room, kitchen, sanitary, engineering.
1st floor: 3 bedrooms, bathroom, engineering.
2nd floor: office, consultation room, bathroom, terrace, separate entrance.

Above: ground floor plan – click above for larger image

Above: first floor plan – click above for larger image

Above: second floor plan – click above for larger image

Above: section – click above for larger image

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by Egeon Architecten appeared first on Dezeen.

Eight Emperors is a stunning new collection of handmade works from Ann Arbor-based husband-and-wife team Matthew Shlian and Thea Augustina Eck. Walking the line between art and design, the pieces range from intricately cut and folded paper sculptures to palm-sized objects crafted from local, fallen lumber—and Shlian tells us…

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