Stitch-Up Your Chair

Liked this concept for ‘stitch your own furniture’ by designer Oscar Nunez. Apart from being a low-cost option, this could also be developed into an eco-friendly product. A really potent idea…..

Funk Chair- Fun Chair

Cory Grosser’s ‘Funk Chair’ really made me smile – its different, its good looking and its fun -a good choice for a post after a long break.

The ‘One-to-Three-for-Five’??

As the title suggests, this is a simple, elegant box table that opens up from one piece into three pieces in not more than five seconds! Designed by John Nouanesing, who also calls it ‘not another cube’. Neat!

Want to ‘Switch’ you Furniture??

SwiTCh is a new concept by designer Ellen Ectors. It is a chair and a table, a relaxing seat and a small working place in one. It switches instantly and effortlessly. swiTCh is the designer’s graduation work and was selected by theyoungdesignersfair interior 08, Kortrijk. The chair/table is completely handmade and multifunctional and easily adapts from a comfortable chair to a small working place. It is a 100% Belgian design, made out of massive oak and fine leather with a filled ball. Encompassing the timeless geometries of both a cube and a sphere it is formal and relaxed, soft and structured, ready for work and play. Ergonomic aspects of the ball improve the posture, provide energy and help stay alert. I love it for its adaptability and the simple, elegant design and detail of execution. Thumbs Up!

When a Group of Chairs become a Bench…..

Jo Nagasaka of Schemata Architecture has designed this unique bench. Its actually six chairs bound together by a plank of wood running through on top. The designer says – “A chair+ a (duck-legged) chair+ a chair+ a chair+ a chair+ a chair ⇒ a bench.”  Now, that’s a real interesting way to perceive a bench. Sort of in the lines of my earlier post – 100 Chairs in 100 Days. I like!

via Dezeen

Sitting Pretty on a Recycled Plastic Chair

Australian industrial designer Stuart Mcfarlane has designed a chair made by folding recycled plastic, without the use of glues or screws and which can hold up to 100 kg. The chair is intended to be suitable indoors and out, and could be re-recycled at the end of its life via domestic infrastructure. It’s simple design and clean lines do appeal to me, but for increased sustainability, the same chair could be developed from thin gauge sheet metal with a similar result. Like it! But hey, will designers stop playing it safe and use some color for a change?!!

Move Around with Your Origami Chair

Came across this innovative portable chair -Cardine designed by Sooin Kim (as a student), which is a easy folding chair formed with a single sheet of plastic and two pairs of Velcro. This simple structure requires extremely few resources and energy for manufacturing so it could be an answer for the sustainable future. And the low cost to produce will make it a low price product so anybody who wants to use will be able to have it. Cardine could be folded to a chair and also be unfolded at any time and place. Nice! And I appreciate the designer’s concern that the material is not eco-friendly and needs more research for a sustainable design.

Want to Sit on Your Sunday Paper?

Back from my traveling, I found this simple idea of a newspaper furniture line as refreshing as my travels. Inspired to extend the ephemeral life of newspapers, David Stovell’s Sunday Paper products consist of tightly rolled newspapers strapped together into stools. The pieces, inspired by bundles of newspapers left outside of shops on a Saturday night, explore the “compressed life cycle” of the material. The designer says, “[they] have a cultural and economic value, and that the same product has a different set of values by Monday morning, in that the news is old news and their value is for pulp. I wondered that if by simply repackaging, the material life cycle could be extended.”

via InHabitat

Our Little White Sofa

Simplicity is the key factor in all of Christian Vivanco designs; always in search by the unification, not only of forms or surfaces, but of functions and uses, customs and necessities, always trying to create something simple, something beautiful. Something that becomes apparent with ‘our little white sofa’. The sofa, designed for both outdoor and indoor use, was conceptualised while searching for an all-together furniture, but at the same time looking for a new expression for this kind of piece. I want one!!

via Dezeen

Accelerated Seating…..

Copenhagen based designer Phillip Grass has designed this wonderfully sleek sofa (its a digital prototype) – Acceleration, which is “futuristic with a sense of acceleration and speed; organic with seamless flowing forms”. He’s obviously inspired by spaceships, airplanes and cars, as well as the structure of bones and the fluid forms of fish.

I’ve read a lot of criticism for this design on Dezeen, where I came across it first. But to the designer’s credit, he’s at least tried to create something different – every concept need not end up being a ‘master’ design, and yes, proportions could go wrong when you start with something. If the designer has the sense to refine and rework on mistakes, why not give him a chance? As for myself, I do like the aerodynamic form, in spite of the obvious references. And I do think a real world prototype would help erase all doubts…..

via Dezeen