When you are trying to melt an everyday product with art, there's a danger that you'll get a state of the art but unusable product. Fortunately, some designers are showing us that the best design and chair functionality can go hand in hand.
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The designers at Glimpt studio travelled to Vietnam to learn and explore their traditional craft technique whereby paper thread gets rolled around sea grass to make bowls. They adapted this technique using instead thread rolled around tubing and attached to a metal frame to create this lounge seating collection for Cappellini. The passion and history behind these surprisingly modern items is what makes this lounge seating furniture collection so captivating.
Sitting on a Missoni? Yes, it's possible. Bright, modern colours and a streamlined, linear design make the Mademoiselle Chair a luxurious choice for seating. Its frame is an injected mold of transparent or dyed polycarbonate on which a seat of expanded polyurethane is placed. The seat is upholstered in cotton with one of three vibrant patterns designed by Rosita Missoni from the collection of Missoni Home. The fabric is unusually thick and soft, making this chair as comfortable as it is appealing to the eye.
The flowing design of the chair by Martz Edition is what makes it so original and visually pleasing. Like a super stylish nest, this chair defines its function in a unique way - you get wrapped in it, the lines follow those of a body in a seated position - the user and item become one unit. The look is modern and the chair comes in a variety of finishing and colours, like an aluminium or wood body and fabric or leather upholstery. These chairs would fit comfortably in a modern, contemporary setting.
Interior design style preferences aside, one can't argue the fact that the Glowing Light Balls Bench by Manfred Kielnhofer are intriguing. We are talking here about functional art that evokes emotion and begs to be used. Composed of three illuminated spheres and two intersecting boards, it boasts a really simple design, but leaves quite an impact. It's a real statement piece, perfect for any ultra modern setting, be it commercial, residential or private.
Concrete is a material generally associated with building, well, buildings. However, some designer have started to manipulate that cold medium, forming it into fluid furniture pieces. Tejo Remy And René Veenhuizen have developed a series of concrete pieces, from tables to chairs, which offers the look of inflated furniture. Each one is cast as a single object in plastic sheeting or waterproof PVC with metal fibres mixed into the material and steel rods embedded within the legs and for reinforcement. ■
