Hasta La Ideas

There’s good design, beautiful design, minimal design. Then there’s the just plain different. In the realm of furniture, with its clearly established forms, this category is often fascinating (for better or worse) and occasionally edifying. So here are the most unusual furniture designs we saw in 2022­:

Furniture Designer Toni Grilo’s Blackcork line of largely monolithic cork furniture

Industrial designer Giorgio Gurioli’s Bikechair; a 3D-printed alternative to yoga-ball-as-chair?

Ikaria Design Co.’s Soul Seat, an office chair that allows you to sit crosslegged

The Pipersong Meditation Chair lets you sit in unusual positions

Steelcase’s Nesting Flex Perch Stool, for perching rather than sitting

Estudio Sancal’s Perigallo, a folding perch-style stool

Ippinka’s Anywhere Kneeling Chair, designed for meditating or kneeling for long stretches

Nemo Equipment’s Stargaze, a suspension-based twist on the camping chair

Philips Collection’s Entropy Chair doesn’t look like seating

Amish Time-Out Chairs for kids, a punitive furniture design

OD Form’s unnamed high-backed tea chair

Fredrik Mattson’s Nulle, a self-standing folding chair

Industrial designer Kouichi Okamoto’s The Chairman, an extreme take on the suspension-based chair

Fortum’s Virén Chair, which gets back up if knocked over

Yamaha Design Lab’s Solo, a stool that doubles as a guitar stand

The Kabine 101, a stool created to store valuables

Industrial designer Christophe de la Fontaine’s Haku, a freestanding storage piece

The Sonu Sleep System, a mattress designed with arm channels for side sleepers

A custom-built bookcase with sliding vertical dividers

Bertjan Pot’s Slim Tables are so thin, they almost qualify as optical illusions

Riddling Tables, furniture used in the winemaking process

Industrial designer Benjamin Thut’s Tool Cabinet 490, a hideaway workstation based on bi-level toolboxes

Industrial designer Benjamin Thut’s Scissor Table has a unique folding mechanism

Yuki Iriyama Gray’s fascinating experimental furniture designs