Category: Furniture design

OLA folding table

I love small space solutions, and when you live in a small apartment without a dining room. The OLA folding table looks like it can double up as a desk or dining table in just a few seconds of set-up, with barely any effort.

Designed by AKKA, the table is not only functional, but when put away, it actually looks like an interesting piece of home decor.

AKKA is a pleas­ant design-studio started by Peter Danielson and Oscar Ternbom and is located in Göte­borg, Swe­den. They do indus­trial design, fur­ni­ture, illus­tra­tion and graphic design.

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The paper cloud sofa by Tokuyin Yoshioka

A ‘messed up’ look. Or is it wabi sabi? Japanese designer Tokujin Yoshioka has a fascinating minimalist approach to asymmetric conceptual design: design and nature get really close. “I’m fascinated by the elements of nature.” he says.

Tokujin Yoshioka takes white paper, crumbles it a lot and voilà. He creates a crumpled sofa with a ‘paperness’ and fluffy cloud feeling. Believe or not the prototype is actually made entirely of paper. The Cloud sofa, to be manufactured by Moroso, has the sensibility of wabi sabi which values modesty, simplicity and imperfection.

Tokujin Yoshioka’s work is displayed at the Museum of Modern Art and Cooper Hewitt’s National Design Museum’s permanent collections among others.

I love the ‘crumbled paper’ blue sketch. One of the interesting things about experimental design is the difference between the first idea and the final object. Is the design more important than the original idea?

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Onda

When you can draw the design of an object with one single line, and do that even after you only saw it briefly more than a week ago, then you know you’ve encountered something special.

Lounge chair Onda by Spanish designer Diego Granese consists of a single piece of stainless steel, covered with leather. It saw the light in 2003 and is produced by the Spanish furniture manufacturer Frajumar.

I haven’t been able to try it for myself, but it looks like quite the balancing act. Either way, a great conversation piece.

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Shellf

Prompted by our recent post on single-drawer Less Stuff, Belgian industrial designer Pieterjan Deblauwe sent in this prototype he made a fw years back.

If you’re a bit like me, your first response will probably something like ’Okay, a shelf, yeah, so?‘ In that case I suggest that you read the next line and then quickly click on through to the rest of the images.

What you are looking at here is Shellf: a bedside table to hide your little secrets. The designer says this:

Objects take volumes out of the space which surrounds you. Here the idea is to use the space which is taken by the object.

Pretty smart!

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Less Stuff

Sometimes all you need is one drawer!

Less stuff is a chest consisting of just one drawer, making it an interesting variation to, say, a nightstand.

I think I am most struck by the simple archetypical form of the object, and the incredible lo-fi-ness of it.

Less Stuff is made by Studio Ditte, a design agency specialized in concept development and product design. Studio Ditte is formed by three Dutch designers: Natasja Heesbeen, Endry van Zwam and Marieke Dirks.

The drawer has a plain matte white finish, and can be hung without the points of suspension visible.

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The Sofa Ruché

This sofa contains a secret. I need softness to satisfy my need for order and aesthetic expression. The stark wood base of this sofa is pure minimalism. But the upholstered, quilted blanket wrapping the minimal frame is traditional and deliberately loose fitting.

The Sofa Ruché, for Ligne Roset, by French designer Inga Sempé, is a conceptual provocation, currently on display at maison et object 2010 in Paris. Inga says she is not interested in art but is fascinated by everyday things. She is the daughter of illustrator Jean-Jacques Sempé and painter and illustrator Mette Ivers-Sempé.

The blending of soft quilting curves with modern sleek geometry is unusual. A softened minimalism with forgiving edges. The goal? Make modern design less intimidating an easier to live with.

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Cuna tub

Somewhere between a throne and a bathtub is Carlo Colombo’s Cuna, designed for Italian bathroom manufacturer Antonio Lupi. Cuna is simple, modern, and stately – a free-standing form that brings together form and function, dignity and relaxation.

The height and incline of Cuna’s backrest are designed with comfort and total relaxation in mind, helping to eliminate the fidgeting, twisting and turning we endure in an attempt to achieve a comfortable semi-seated position in standard bathtubs. Furthermore, “the base shape is rectangular, but sides are rounded, another singularity making the tub really comfortable,” explains the company.

Cuna’s designer, Carlo Colombo, is an Italian architect who also designed the Sarto 15 Tub (in cristalplant) for Antonio Lupi and Twelve, a kitchen concept for Poliform.

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Waterside

I’m a big fan of Claudio Silvestrin’s work: austere but not extreme, contemporary yet timeless, calming but not ascetic, strong but not intimidating, elegant but not ostentatious.

Silvestrin made this macassar ebony Waterside bench-with-armrest in 2001 for Cappellini. The bench is one simple play of proportion. The retail price however is of a different proportion ;-)

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Shadow Chair

At first glance, this chair seems to defy gravity, by standing upright while only having two front legs.

It is only on closer inspection that you see that the shadow is part of the chair, and made from steel, which is attached to a metal frame built inside the chair: the chair is resting on its own shadow.

This Shadow Chair is a design of Chris Duffy of Duffy London, a British design firm producing furniture, lighting and interior products.

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YOUTOO

This prototype wardrobe, named YOUTOO, is designed by Berlin based Atelier Haußmann – founded by the brothers Andreas and Rainer Haußmann. Made from powder coated steel YOUTOO seems like a robust and multi functional furniture piece.

Time will tell when this prototype will be in production and available in Atelier Haußmanns shop.

YOUTOO is nominated for the interior innovation award at IMM Cologne 2010 – starting today until January 24th.

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