That may all be true, but as the open office trend has grown, so has an entire industry of products designed to correct all of the problems they present for employees who struggle to focus, hear one another, and enjoy any measure of privacy in their distraction-riddled environments.

Sound-dampening privacy pods provide a compromise between the new open office ethos and hallways lined with separate enclosed rooms for each employee. Enter the headquarters of just about any large company today, and what you’ll see is almost certainly a wide open space filled with modular pods designed for small meetings or solitary concentration.

At an office like AirBnb’s San Francisco headquarters, these “pods” might actually take the shape of padded illuminated niches cut into a giant wooden “ship” or house-shaped booths for private phone calls, but you don’t have to have the budget of a multi-billion-dollar corporation to make the concept work for your space.

The “Planet for Two” by Ukrainian design duo MZPA is a portable solution that can be placed in any open space for instant privacy, and it’s cool-looking, too. Built to fit two people (as its name suggests), this geodesic meeting room is made from connected triangles of plywood, powder-coated metal connectors, and a plush fabric mattress in customizable colors. It’s based on a previous design called “The Planet,” which itself accommodates a single user.

The designers envision both of these geometric pods as multipurpose rooms-within-rooms that can be used for meetings, lounging, brainstorming, phone calls, or even in place of a desk for employees who work more efficiently in less open environments. Communication is key in any business, they note, and while open office plans seem like they should foster more of it, too much noise and activity can make people feel like they have to shout over each other to be heard, worsening the problem.

Available for delivery anywhere in the world, the Planet for Two retails for $5,700 and comes with a built-in LED lamp, speaker system, USB charging port for electronic devices, and even a few optional solar panels so you can place it outdoors if you like. It’s easy to imagine these pods fitting right into places like airports, cafés, and college campuses.

“It’s great for moments when you need to stay alone, gather your thoughts and focus, and have a cup of coffee,” say designers Julia Kononenko and Artem Zakharchenko.

More than anything, pods like the “Planet for Two” demonstrate the need for offices to remain flexible to both the diverse needs of staff and changing trends in office interior design. Give your employees enough privacy and quiet, and they might not have to resort to such desperate tactics as noise-cancelling helmets that look like a joke from a comedy set in outer space.

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This concept was recently brought to new life with the collaboration between Italian architect and designer Gaetano Pesce and the uber-luxe Italian fashion house Bottega Veneta during their SS23 collection showcase at this year’s Milan Fashion Week. Pesce and his team hand-crafted a whopping 400 technicolor chairs specifically for the event.

The chairs’ aesthetics are as unique as Faberge eggs, each one a rainbow-colored dream of swirling colors. While some of the seats evoke stoic marble and mountains of multicolored candy, others are decorated with hand-drawn designs depicting Bottega Veneta accessories — all one-of-a-kind objet d’art meant not only to be admired, but to be an integral part of the fashion show.

Entitled “Come Stai?,” the collection served as actual seating for the show’s attendees, themselves an active contrast to the swirling shades of the floor beneath. And like fashion itself, the chairs serve a multi-layered purpose. Meant to highlight the underlying theme of diversity in fashion, Pesce’s colorful handmade chairs make a powerful statement on mass production, and how devastating carbon-copy furniture reproductions can be to a piece’s individuality.

As Pesce explained during an on-set conversation, “We are all originals, and this is one of the themes to my design.” He also emphasized the importance of flow and change in design as opposed to the stagnation that can result from commercial reproduction, adding, “as a designer, I make originals, not standardized series.”

“Form, function, and thought are necessary for design and art,” Pesce said before unveiling the first of the 400 “Come Stai?” chairs. The collection will go on to find new life in an exhibition at Design Miami 2022, and the individual chairs will eventually be made available for purchase.

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These pieces were dreamed up by Slovenian-born designer and Bohinc Studio founder Lara Bohinc. The armchairs and poufs are not “naked,” she insists; they’re modestly upholstered in fine, soft wool fabric. She was inspired to create them after working as a jewelry designer in the fashion industry for many years, where curvy bodies are not typically welcome. She wanted to craft pieces that not only feel like sinking into the body of a woman you love, but encourage acceptance of real bodies, flaws and all.

“The female form has always been a source of inspiration in art, photography, and design, but often with an unrealistic eye or as a response to society’s perception of how the female body ‘should’ look,” says Bohinc. “I wanted the Peaches collection to be a pure and unabashed celebration of femininity and the female form, celebrating every curvy, voluptuous, and fleshy detail.”

“Although my previous work has always had a feminine touch, my pieces have often featured more geometric qualities. The Peaches collection is my most curvaceous to date, reminiscent of all the gorgeous shapes of a woman’s body and with no straight lines or sharp angles in sight.”

The Derriére armchair might just be the boldest of the three pieces in the collection. The inspiration pointed out by the name is front and center, immediately recognizable, in both the back and seat. The “arms” of the chair are really more like softly folded legs. The matching Peachy pouf is a mass of breast-like forms upon which to rest your weary feet.

The Big Girl armchair, the largest piece in the collection, is just slightly more abstracted. Swelling, sensual shapes come together to offer a low-slung seat that cradles the body with six bulbous supporting elements. Wood and steel are used to create the frames of each piece, while foam fills them out. Each one is handmade in a North London upholstery workshop and can be purchased from Bohinc Studio’s online shop, with prices ranging from just over £7,000 to £14,000 (about $8,300 to $16,600). Every purchase is individually numbered and comes with a certificate of authenticity.

If you find Bohinc Studio’s pointedly mammalian Peaches collection a little lurid, or maybe even offensive, the company offered a clarification in an interview with The New York Times. “I’m lucky I’m not a man. I would have to be very, very careful [about inviting people to sink into the provocative seating]. But because I’m a woman, I can celebrate my own body. It’s the difference between objectifying something and celebrating something.”

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“This is one of the most famous chairs in the world, and it’s so disconnected from its original heritage,” Concepcion told Curbed. She learned that it originated at the Bilibid Prison in Manila in the early 1900s, where it was made by incarcerated people. “I literally just stopped in my tracks. This was such a strong cultural symbol. How could I not know about its history?”

A graduate landscape architecture student at the time, Concepcion was seeking historical references from her own culture that she could incorporate into her designs. She found herself magnetically drawn to the classic woven rattan Peacock chair (seen here in a version by Kouboo) with its high, round back. Featured on dozens of album covers by artists like Al Green, James Brown, and Drake, the chair also famously appeared in a portrait of Black Panther Party co-founder Huey Newton.

“To me, it’s about more than designing a collection; I’m inventing a style,” Concepcion says. “Within Asian culture, there is a hierarchy of whose history gets recognized, who gets to have cultural heritage, and who gets to sponsor diplomatic engagement because of their cultural heritage. The Philippines has been left out of that. Because of colonization and assimilation, there has been a loss of direct connection between our Indigenous past and where we are today. My dream is to bring visibility to our story.”

The tale of exactly how the chair came to be designed and manufactured in a Philippine prison is a fascinating one. The country was already known for its long tradition of basketry made of rattan and bamboo, but the popularity of rattan furniture that first exploded in the early 20th century is a product of American colonialism. Furniture — particularly chairs — was not common in the Philippines, where floor-sitting was the norm.

Chinese and European colonists occupying the country at the time wanted chairs, and actually believed that getting prisoners to make them would help “civilize” them. The throne-like Peacock chair made its design debut at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition and quickly captured the public imagination. In the United States, people saw it as a symbol of exotic foreign royalty. It has remained a part of the cultural consciousness ever since, and helped drive a renewed interest in woven cane design in recent years.

With her RECLAIM collection, Cheyenne Concepcion pays tribute to the Peacock chair’s cultural history as well as the broader traditions of Philippine weaving. The beautiful four-piece collection includes the Doña Lounge Chair, the Coco nesting table set, the Lolo mirror, and the Anak Totem sculptures.

For the Doña, Concepcion lowered the height of the Peacock chair, gave it a more relaxed posture and brought in accents of wood, brass, and steel. The bronze-tinted smoked mirror has a tropical vibe with its loose strands of cane streaming out like fringe. The collection truly feels like a new paradigm for tropical Asian-Pacific design, and a lovely nod to the feminine art of weaving.

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Without a doubt, a trip to the Danish capital reveals a veritable splendor of design dynamism, from more famous buildings like The Playhouse, Portland Towers, and the Royal Danish Opera House to even the most commonplace spots.The new Connie-Connie café is one such place. Hip, colorful, and fashionably austere, this up-and-coming spot in Copenhagen Contemporary exudes a stylish modernism that’s distinctly Danish.

An international art center and bastion for creatives both locally and worldwide, Copenhagen Contemporary’s HQ itself is a work of art. Occupying the former site of the B&W Welding Hall, the eclectic space is the perfect blend of industrial vibes and immersive, contemporary spaces for artists and creators to display their work.

It comes as no surprise that its latest addition, dubbed the Connie-Connie Café, is similarly pushing the envelope when it comes to its creative design. Conceived by the imaginative firm Tableau in collaboration with Australian designer Ari Prasetya, the space is painted a vivid seafoam green from top to bottom. This bright hue dominates the room’s palette and sets the stage for the café’s real centerpiece: its 25 unique and distinctly designed chairs.

Dotted throughout the café and exhibited like fully functional works of art, it’s hard not to notice these chairs. Curated by Studio Tableau from 25 different artists, the café’s chairs and benches were all made using Douglas fir off-cuts provided by Danish wood flooring company Dinesen — the same group that inspired the café’s distinctive green color palette. The bar, desk, tables, and three additional chairs were created by Prasetya and perfectly complement the eclectic parade of stylish seating.

The chairs’ creators, consisting of 25 artists hailing from Denmark and around the world, were each asked to design a wooden chair or bench to showcase furniture’s creative capabilities. And design they did, seeing as how no chair in the collection is alike. From blocky benches to shapely seats, chunky, industrial benches to delicate wooden wonders, each one is a work of art, highlighting the ability of furniture to go beyond its essential functionality and enter the sphere of artistic possibility.

All of these chairs and tables are available for purchase at Tableau’s online shop — the perfect opportunity for guests to adorn their own spaces with the café’s creatively curated furnishings.

So much more than just a spot to grab a cup of coffee, Copenhagen Contemporary’s Connie-Connie Café is also a stage for an exhibition of its own, featuring one-of-a-kind chairs that perfectly showcase the Danish capital’s penchant for dynamic, forward-thinking design.

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Mousarris Design Studio cut fabric-covered foam into interlocking puzzle pieces that can be fit into a wall frame or pulled down and stacked on top of one another to create avant-garde “sofas.” Strong magnets within the furniture keep it from shifting with weight and also allow the units to attach back to the wall when being put away.

The Summit Sofa’s seven pieces can be arranged in dozens of configurations, and the website even encourages users to transform them into a “play area for you and your friends.” Admittedly, the connected shapes probably don’t have the same comfort and repose value of a traditional sofa, but they are robust enough to provide additional seating for short-term gatherings.

While the foam sections are in use, the wall frame reveals a navy background intersected with white wavy outlines. It serves not only as art itself (resembling overlapping mountain ranges), but as a template of where to replace the pieces when done.

The Cyprus-based furniture company was founded in 2015 by industrial engineer Stelios Mousarris with the intention “to produce high-quality pieces of conceptual furniture and unique objects beyond the boundaries of the imagination.” His bachelor’s degree in modelmaking frequently comes into play in his sculptural creations.

Mousarris has experimented with the boundary between art and furniture from the beginning of his career. His Wave City coffee table takes the folding cityscapes from the hit 2010 movie Inception and rolls them into a living room conversation piece. The precariously balanced, gravity-defying shape of the table simultaneously produces feelings of awe and uneasiness. It turns out that so many people are okay with that emotional contradiction that the price of the coffee table has jumped a whopping €3,000 in the past five years, leading the company to produce an accompanying “Wave City Bar.”

Mousarris is also known for his Carpet Chair, a handmade seat constructed from traditional Persian rugs in a way that “gives the illusion of a magic carpet floating in the air.” Each chair takes four months to complete and looks like it could never hold any weight but is actually surprisingly sturdy.

The designer’s more recent Zen Kusshion looks convincingly like a large boulder placed in the middle of rippling pool. But this stone gives way to soft comfort, offering a great seat for relaxation and finding a zen state of mind.

The company website also says that a collection of Mousarris’ work “can be found proudly displayed permanently at the Louvre museum’s 21st-century design wing” and has been published in three different books.

The new Summit Sofa is selling on the company site for €3,400. While no specifics were given for this design, Mousarris’ furniture is often produced in limited editions of 25 or less due to its unique nature, so this puzzling seating may not last long.

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As helpful as it is, Grandin’s squeeze machine isn’t exactly easy to integrate into the average home or public space. So when designer Audrain Alexia was challenged to produce a piece of furniture that meets a real unmet need, she decided to adapt Grandin’s active, customizable pressure concept into a chair she calls OTO. This modern armchair looks similar to high-back privacy chairs, with a top that curves over the user’s head but incorporates inner walls that inflate to apply deep pressure to the chest or legs.

Designed to mimic the “squeeze machine” but in the form of “more aesthetic, less stigmatizing furniture,” the OTO chair has a remote with + and – signs to inflate or deflate the cells. Its cocoon-like shape grants the user a sense of privacy and safety while also muffling external sounds. People with autism seeking the calming effect of deep pressure might usually try to achieve it with an intense hug, a passive weighted blanket, or even by asking someone else to lay on top of them, but these solutions either require the help of a companion or a private place to lay down. OTO, on the other hand, looks enough like normal furniture to offer discreet relief, even if it were installed in places like lobbies and workspaces.

Created during Alexia’s studies as a cabinetmaker and designer, OTO was developed with the assistance of educators who work with autistic people and the input of autistic people themselves. Alexia spent a year and a half researching the therapeutic effects of pressure, creating prototypes and testing them before coming up with the final design. The chair has been tested in the child psychiatry department of PR Bonnet-Brilhault, a French autism research center, since January 2021.

“The integration of users in the design process allowed me to improve the user experience and focus on noise or light emitted by the chair and understand what could be an issue for a person with an autism spectrum disorder,” Alexia says. “This approach will help me to produce furniture that is useful, usable, and used in the long term. For people with autism who are sensitive to touch, a sensoriality course has been carried out. This decor composed of different materials such as wool felt or soft resin brings a graphic design to the armchair. Pastel colors have been chosen with care for their calming effect. The interior trim is fully removable and its velvet fabric is machine washable.”

The OTO chair is currently undergoing additional testing in various environments to fine-tune its effectiveness, and Alexia hopes that it will be commercially available by September 2022. The design was named among the top 20 international entries in the 2021 James Dyson Awards.

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Furniture artists from the Tokyo-based Nendo Inc. were one of 18 international creative groups invited by Dior to reinterpret the Medallion chair as part of a special exhibition at this year’s Salone del Mobile in Milan.

Some covered the chair in surprising fabrics, while others deconstructed it and grafted it back together with extra materials. One group even made it look like it was being sucked into the vacuum of space.

Nendo was one at the few studios with a truly novel take on Dior’s famous design. According to the company website, the team decided to reinterpret the chair with “state-of-the-art technology in continuation of the vision of our founding, ‘graceful fusion of modernity and tradition.’” The traditional Medallion chair is a simplified version of the classic Louis XVI dining seat with a signature oval back and square upholstered seat. The artists at Nendo used these shapes to invert the design, effectually creating a stencil of the chair.

The Nendo artists stripped the chair down to its essence, leaving behind only its most recognizable feature. “The oval cutout in the back of each one conveys the impression that the Medallion chair’s most notable characteristic is floating delicately in midair,” they explain.

Since it’s made from a transparent sheet of 3’ x 6’ chemically hardened glass, the Nendo Chaise Medallion 3.0 might be invisible if not for the missing egg-shape where the original’s back support would be. Constructed using a newly developed method, the curved shape that forms the legs, back, and seat piece was submerged in potassium nitrate molten salt at over 800 degrees Fahrenheit before being allowed to cool and solidify. This process creates an incredibly strong material even at just 3 mm thick. The chemical hardening also provides the chair with more flexural strength and scratch resistance.

Christian Dior created the original Medallion Chair back in 1946 when he founded his design house and was in need of seating for his first fashion shows. In his memoirs, he said he wanted the observers to sit on something that felt “somber, simple, and above all classic and Parisian.” Naturally, he pared down the Louis XVI model, added his own signature fabrics and prints, and furniture history was made. The Medallion has since been featured in many iterations of Dior boutiques over the years and has inspired several of the company’s cases and perfume bottles.

Perhaps that connection to perfume containers is part of the vision behind Nendo’s glass seating offering. In addition to the fully transparent seat, the group also produced one in frosted glass, one in pink ombré, and one in opaque black. The minimalist chairs almost look like a lineup of fragrance vessels, with their delicate shape and striking hues.

Nendo was founded in 2002 by CEO and chief designer Oki Sato, an architecture graduate from Waseda University. Since then, the company has added an office in Milan and grown to over 50 employees. They have won numerous international awards, including being named “Designer of the Year” by Ell Deco International Design.

The Chaise Medallion 3.0 was on display at Milan Design Week 2021 from September 5th through 10th in the Palazzo Citterio.

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In an interview with Fast Company, Dixon recounted the childhood experience that inspired him to embrace automotive industry techniques in his HYDRO chair design. As a five-year-old back in the 1960s, he was left alone in a parked Citroën 2CV, a small French car reminiscent of a Volkswagen Beetle. As any curious young child is bound to do, he pulled a lever in there that happened to release the parking brake and send the car rolling backwards down a hill. Its momentum was stopped by a crash at the bottom of the road.

Perhaps because that was such a traumatic and vivid experience for him, the design of that Citroën has always stuck in Dixon’s mind. Made from a light, tubular frame base and thin stamped steel walls, the hood’s subtle ridges give it a distinctive character. Partnering with Norwegian firm HYDRO (and naming his design after their company), Dixon worked with those shapes to create an ultra-lightweight aluminum chair that’s both stackable and 100-percent recyclable.

“The future needs circular materials and we need to design products that live longer, can be recycled or reused,” says Hilde Kallevig, Head of Brand and Marketing at HYDRO, adding that “understanding material properties and manufacturing processes will help create more sustainable products designed with recycling or reuse in mind, and that is why we believe it is important for designers and manufacturers to collaborate.”

In addition to sustainability, the HYDRO chair is incredibly playful in its aesthetic.

“I wasn’t attempting to make something that had such a pop sensibility. It’s quite recognizable, I think,” says Dixon. “I was seriously trying to think of an economical way of getting soft edges and strength into the sheet.”

That combination required the skill of a Canadian auto supplier that also subcontracts with Tesla. They used an automotive technique called superforming to pull off the job, spraying molten aluminum into a one-piece mold and then allowing to harden. The result is a single piece that can have more precise lines and details than you’d get with molds or stamps.

“You get a lot less scarring on the metal, and it can go into tighter radiuses, which allows you to make the structure,” Dixon explains.

The legs of the HYDRO, however, cannot be incorporated in the superforming process and are instead attached with an industrial-strength adhesive.

Dixon enjoyed working with the auto industry on this project. “The advantage of working with car companies is they have more advanced everything,” he says, adding that “the furniture business is lagging behind in ergonomics, material science . . . all sorts of stuff.” He also says that “being able to work with the top aluminum and material experts in the industry was an opportunity I couldn’t refuse.”

Because his chair is so light – just eight pounds – and so easily stacked, it’s easy to imagine in all sorts of commercial settings. “I think it’ll be used a bit more in museum cafeterias and car showrooms…but my hope would be, if we can get it to the right price…it would be a great chair for prisons and kindergartens, as well,” says Dixon. “It’s very indestructible.”

In this limited edition run, each chair comes marked with both a unique number and a signed certificate from the designer himself.

Dixon is a self-taught designer who first gained acclaim in the 1990s for his ‘”Jack” creation: the original “sitting, lighting, stacking thing.” After collaborating for decades with other famous designers, he’s now the creative director of his own eponymous brand that specializes in lighting, furniture, and accessories.

The post Cutting-Edge Car Tech Makes the HYDRO Chair Ultra Lightweight and Strong first appeared on Dornob.

Every month, 129 billion disposable masks are used and thrown away around the world. They’re an environmental disaster in their own right, especially the surgical kind made of polypropylene plastic. For starters, birds get their legs tangled in the elastic straps and sea creatures mistake them for food. Then as they break down into micro-plastics, they pollute waterways, and eventually our drinking water. But unfortunately for us all, they’re also a crucial part of combating the coronavirus.

Reusable fabric masks are a better choice, and at the very least, governments could be educating the public about how to dispose of them and coordinating mass clean-up campaigns. In the meantime, one South Korean furniture designer has an idea for making use of all the waste. With “Stack and Stack,” Haneul Kim transforms thousands of used disposable masks into colorful stools in white, blue, pink, black, and multicolored palettes.

“The disposable mask consists of a plastic (PP) material, melt blow filter, and spun-bond,” Kim writes on Instagram. “I make a chair-shaped module that melts, cools, and hardens the plastic mask. Thousands of masks, which were this thin fabric, combine together and finally have the durability of a hard, tough plastic. I hope that the curiosity of recycling masks will not stop at the object of chairs, but will be the possibility to inform the seriousness of environmental pollution and solve the problem.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/CI2kTK-lMl2/

Kim breaks down the process in a series of Instagram posts, including how the masks were melted down into polypropylene globs and formed into various shapes. Experimental discs demonstrate the effects of mixing different colors of masks together with interesting dappled results. Each stool also has three legs which are constructed separately from the seat and then formed together with hot plastic and clamps. The results are certainly a little rough around the edges, but you can see how a little polish could make them resemble something you’d see for sale at a place like IKEA.

Finding a new purpose for used, bacteria-laden masks may strike you as a gross and potentially dangerous task, but there’s no need to worry about the finished stools being contaminated. Setting up a mask collection box at his school, the Kaywon University of Art and Design in Uiwang city, Kim gathered 10,000 used masks from his peers, along with more than a ton of defective masks straight from a factory. He then kept them in storage for at least four days to reduce the risk of coronavirus transmission, removed all the elastic bands and wires, and used a heat gun to melt them within shaping molds. Trust us: the temperatures it reaches of over 570 degrees Fahrenheit are more than enough to kill any microbes present.

The 18-inch-tall stools went on display at Kim’s graduation exhibition, and he plans to expand “Stack and Stack” to additional furniture pieces like chairs, tables, and lamps in the future. Hopefully, this project will inspire others to find new uses for this newly ubiquitous litter, or at least encourage people to properly dispose of their old face masks.

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The Elite Perspective

Oddly enough, chairs are king in the world of opulent home furnishings. Famous architects and designers from every era have created individual chairs that sold for millions of dollars, and many of those have actually increased in value over time. Stories abound of inspiration, political statements, romance, and historical significance regarding chair designs. In many cases, a single chair can even be the focal point of a room.

AI Gets Involved

With both these perceptions in mind, designers Philipp Schmitt and Steffen Weiss contemplated what effect AI could have on chair design. More specifically, they wondered if robotic chair design could compete with human creations. Their experiment sought to determine if neural networks could produce a so-called “design classic:” a chair that successfully combined function, innovation, and artistry as successfully as a human-made model.

The Groundwork

Schmitt and Weiss, residents of New York and Berlin respectively, called their experiment the chAIr Project. It began with months of working side by side to produce two “neural networks” (algorithms) for the AI to run on. One was programmed to see likenesses between different chairs and create comparable ones. The second network established whether or not the image actually represented what a particular chair looked like and made adjustments as necessary to make the design comply with general standards.

The Details

The resulting algorithms pumped out hundreds of variations, many of which were mishmashes of abstract forms that had to be deconstructed and pieced back together to even resemble chairs. The basic elements were all there, including a gracefully arched wooden back reminiscent of a Hans Wegner design, bowed tubular steel evocative of Mies van der Rohe chairs, and narrowed legs that harked back to popular mid-century designs. The combination of these styles was both intriguing and bizarre. Schmitt noted: “Based on these two variables, the algorithm created hundreds of resulting forms that are more abstract, sculptural collage than functional designs: the sketches appear as purely associative objects that mash up familiar components. This creates a lot of potential for our human imaginations to fill in the details.” He ultimately transformed the results into 3D sketches, applying real-world factors to produce miniature mock-ups made from brass tubing, balsawood, and aluminum mesh.

The Results

In the end, the four miniatures proved a little overwhelming. Much like the awe-inspiring works of M.C. Escher, the properties of chairs were all there, just not in the traditional places, resulting in models with too many armrests, missing pieces, or no place for a person to actually sit.

Schmitt and Weiss plan to move forward and produce full-size models of the designs with the help of a conventional Danish woodworker, reiterating that AI is just one of many paths in the design network. Schmitt added: “Many famous designers have designed chairs, and one could argue that there have been enough chair designs in the world for quite a while. Yet, designers still design chairs. They are an expression of a person, a philosophy, or state of mind, a time and place in history — like a painting. In my opinion, chair designs will remain expressions of human ingenuity, but some of the iconic designs of our current century might very well be designed with, or even entirely by, machines.”

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The Cluvens IW-SK zero-gravity esports gaming chair and workstation is intimidating enough when it’s static. Its black metal form arches over upon itself, supported by eight sharp legs. The user climbs inside, cradled by a scorpion’s tail, face to face with monitors mounted to the mechanized creature’s “stinger.”

But the real kicker is that this thing moves. The chair starts in an inclined position with its tail curved back, making it easier to sit. Activate its transforming feature, and it curls itself around you, two movable arms trapping you in with surfaces for your keyboard and mouse. It’s certainly not for the faint of heart or the claustrophobic — but it could be for someone who wants all their colleagues to be absolutely terrified of them, probably.

As the company puts it, “with a touch of a button, it transforms into whatever you need it to be.” Cue the horror movie music.

Honestly though, if you aren’t afraid of scorpions, it’s pretty cool. Both the angle and distance of the monitors is adjustable, and you can have either a single or triple-screen setup. The motorized cockpit can sit you upright or lay you back, and the chair even features massage and heating functions so you can relax after a long day of evil plotting.

Since the pandemic is generally keeping us from being in offices together, most buyers will have to settle for terrorizing members of their own families for now. But if you’re willing to drop $3,299 on this showstopper, you’re probably also willing to wait for the perfect opportunity to give more people the scare of their lives when you press that button.

The Cluvens team adds that “the Scorpion’s claws look a little sharp, but they actually [have] rounded corners. So you don’t have to worry about getting cut by the corners. Its main function is used as a keyboard and mouse stand. On its side there is a slot that conveniently stores a remote control for the cockpit. A simple press and the Scorpion will change into your favorite pose.”

“The Scorpion’s legs are surprisingly mobile as well. It really looks like a live scorpion. So sometimes I feel like it’s my pet and not a machine. You don’t have to worry about the Scorpion’s feet scratching your floor [though], because these legs aren’t actually touching the floor. While each Scorpion requires a reservation, once you get it, you will never regret the weeks of waiting. Meanwhile, your social circle will be busy, because all of your friends will want to know where you got this next-gen toy.”

Gamers, is this your dream chair, or is it more like a nightmare? Let’s just hope this thing is never connected to the internet so it can become sentient and crash through your window out into the streets.

The post Zero-Gravity Gaming Chair Nestles You Into a Giant Scorpion first appeared on Dornob.

Artist and educator Jordi Ferreiro is known for shaking up the status quo in museums and other cultural institutions by inserting installations and performances into guided tours. In 2020, he was commissioned to take an experimental approach to the educational program at La Capella museum in Barcelona, itself a beautiful, cathedral-like space in the neighborhood of El Raval.

His immediate goal was to create more intimacy between guests and exhibitions while making the space more comfortable for the local residents it hopes to serve. El Raval is a vibrant neighborhood that’s historically working class but rapidly gentrifying. Throughout the year, Ferreiro has been working with schools and local organizations to bring art to the people, even temporarily relocating some children’s exhibits to public spaces.

Inside the actual museum, Ferreiro wanted to turn this space “into a nexus for residents in the Raval,” forging deep and lasting connections between the historic institution and the city. La Capella and Ferreiro then collaborated with artist Lluis Alexandre Casanovas to create “Exedra,” portable auditorium-style seating that removes the barriers between viewers and art.

“One of the aims of the design was to move away from standardized institutional approaches to participation and social engagement — ones which emphasize do-it-yourself aesthetics and the use of primary colors referencing pedagogic spaces,” says Casanovas. “This design emphasized light, and was made to be portable, in order that it could be placed amidst the exhibition space, directly confronting the artworks to be discussed.”

“This presented a two-fold challenge. On the one hand, the design needed to create an intimate space for conversation in the huge, gothic venue. On the other hand, the design needed to not interfere and distort the actual environment of the exhibition space. The final design consists in two symmetrical stands, each of them weighing only 70 kilograms and movable by a single person, thus easing the relocation of the piece in a facility with reduced staff.”

Of course, the coronavirus pandemic has altered some of the museums’ plans for the year, subsequently rendering “Exedra” a little less powerful than it might have been otherwise. It was originally intended to be used in groups of two or more, creating modular semi-circular seating that faces the art and the museum guide while allowing interaction between the guests. The seating allows anyone of any age and ability level to participate equally, effectively placing all visitors at the same level, since wheelchair users can simply park beside the benches.

To stay safe in the COVID-19 era, La Capella keeps the two main seating areas separate from each other, placing similar accessory structures and chairs among ambiance-enhancing indoor plants nearby. They also help establish appropriate distancing between groups who aren’t in the same household.

The post Exedra: Group Seating for Art Museums Enhances Accessibility first appeared on Dornob.

History is in the details, as seen in the simple yet striking designs of Dutch furniture designer and architect Gerrit Rietveld. A collection of Rietveld’s furniture pieces, gathered and appreciated by the Housden family for decades, recently went to auction with renowned auction house Christie’s. The collection not only represents the time in which it was crafted, but also their creator’s longstanding appreciation for professional creative design.

The first piece in the collection grabbed the attention of Brian Housden and his wife Margaret during a trip to The Netherlands in the 1950s. Housden, also an architect, was visiting Rietveld’s landmark Schroder House in Utrecht when Barbara commented on the “Red Blue” chair she was sitting on. Rietveld then gave it to her as a gift.

Although working mostly as an architect during that era, Rietveld had created many furniture designs during the late 1910 and early 1920s, even starting a furniture factory before also becoming an architect. Always having the vision of his furniture being mass-produced instead of individually crafted, Rietveld’s designs were aimed at simple construction rather than ornate or complicated features that would be difficult to reproduce. The results turned into pieces like the Zig-Zag chair, Schroeder occasional table, and Elling sideboard, of which the Housdens’ daughter remarked, “The sideboard was always in use, a vital piece of furniture for storing crockery, napkins, and glasses in the cupboards, and the surface areas were used for cutlery, small vases, mats, and the much-used cheese bell.”

The Housdens made their own impact in the architectural world after being influenced by their visit to the Schroder House, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. At the time of their visit, Brian was working on designs for his own family home, which was also influenced by the bold statements he saw at Madam Dalsace’ home in Paris, The Maison de Verre. This culmination of design ideas became the blueprint for one of the first Brutalist-style buildings in the UK, at 78 South Hill Park in London.

The friendship between the designers resulted in the Housdens receiving 14 pieces of Rietveld furniture, all of which were scattered throughout the original house and adored by the family for decades. The couple also collected many more pieces over the next several years.

Tess Housden, daughter of Brian and Margaret, worked with Christie’s to prepare for the auction following the passing of her parents. She had many stories to share regarding the history of the furniture both before and during the time the family owned it. Rietveld designed his furniture with the intention that it would be used rather than preserved, and Tess reports the family did just that, stating: “After school, we would sit on the Berlin Chair to do our homework, as it had a large, flat armrest that could accommodate exercise books. I remember our dad often sat on the Red Blue Chair to watch television, smoke his pipe, and read the daily paper. I would definitely say that this piece of furniture was the most used. This was ‘his’ chair.”

Tess adds: “‘The importance of the furniture came from the fact that our father was very proud of his friendship with Gerrit Rietveld; in many ways, Rietveld was instrumental in encouraging our father to be bold and adventurous with the plans of the house he was to build in South Hill Park. In this same way, the furniture Rietveld designed for the house also became a key part of our time there, and I cannot think of our time growing up in the house without these pieces.”

The post Striking Gerrit Rietveld Furniture Pieces Go Up for Auction first appeared on Dornob.

The Partners

Benjamin Hubert of LAYER, a celebrated design agency, recently joined forces with fashion studio RAEBURN, managed by creative director Christopher Raeburn, to create a limited edition series of pioneering furniture that works on several levels. Structure and form were at the forefront of the project, with the designers wanting their creations to reveal inspirations from both the fashion and industrial design worlds. But the most unique thing about group, which consists of two screens and four rocking chairs, is that it’s made from welded steel frames and recycled materials from both aircraft brake parachutes and ex-military parachutes.

How the Pieces are Made

The frames for the chairs are all made from steel, but each has a style that’s entirely its own. One is simple and angular, pristinely polished and meticulously finished. Another is purposely more unfinished and boldly artistic, with raw welded joints prominently displayed to show the craftsmanship in all its simple glory. Still, it’s the parachute material that ultimately steals the show. The pair studied RAEBURN’s archived fashions to refamiliarize themselves with the exclusive composition, luminousness, and tactile features of the ultra-thin ripstop nylon material. They worked closely with one of the studio’s head seamstresses to guarantee the vision they had was precisely executed.

The airy, nearly sheer nylon fabric is artfully hung, wrapped, and flung on the frames, where the translucent textile creates the padding and webbing for the bodies of the chairs. Two of the chair designs feature a playful, disheveled look. Another is dominated by soft, yielding shades of peach and white. The fourth contrasts with several classic shades of gray and black.

The screens in the collection boast a color-blocked pattern that alters light passing through them, casting myraid shapes and shadows from different angles. The parachute material here is taut, and the lack of flexibility perfectly complements the flowing, freeform lines of the rocking chairs.

The material in all the pieces is held in place with ingeniously designed hidden seams, French seams, and hidden zippers. To add comfort into the mix, the armrests have been bound with extra parachute fabric.

The Creators Comment

Lest anyone query for more details on the design and construction of the chairs and screens, the two design mavens clarify: “The Canopy Collection uses the strict geometry of the steel frames as a base on which to experiment with innovative and forward-thinking recycled parachute upholstery. [It] is tuned into the semantics of a parachute in flight — the lounge chair gently rocks back and forth, while the re-configurable screen takes inspiration from the section and construction of a wing.”

The collection premiered during the London Design Festival last week, which ran from September 14th to 22nd, 2019. It was also exhibited at RAEBURN’s new store in central London.

The post Old Parachutes Reach New Heights in Recycled Furniture Collection first appeared on Dornob.

At the intersection of art and design sit the chairs of William Stone, a series of cut-and-paste chair designs that mix and match elements from existing seats with stranger parts like thick and bulky rough-hewn logs.

Existing structural elements that would normally seem ordinary are suddenly called into question, standing out as visual anomolies – their thinness and regularity seeming more impressive under the weighty misshapen objects they support.

In other cases, Stone takes only new and natural pieces to create wholes that are at once unique and somehow easy to believe. Their simplicity reflects a kind of do-it-yourself approach that makes one want to make his or her own at home.

From standard supports to wheeled bases and rocking rails, each of these chairs is different and yet made part of a similar set by virtue of how they were created and the combination of new and old, natural and man-made elements used.

In addition to the chairs shown individually above, Stone has exhibited a great many other Frankenstein-esque custom art chairs assembled from all kinds of parts – including ones composed entirely of single-function pieces like legs, backs or bottoms.

Most of his work isn’t nearly so practical as this. Check out this description from ArtForum, which should prime you to check out more on his website:

“The absurdist sculptures of William Stone confront us with an utter lack of functionality. Working with wood, brass, copper, and various domestic and industrial objects, Stone creates quirky, self-contained inventions.”

“His perfectionist sensibility gives the work an air of importance that exceeds its actual usefulness. Stone revels in a clean, forthright style. Many of the pieces seem to embody contradictions; the newness of the wood often conflicts with the outdated machine elements. Most of the works’ references exist outside specific art-world contexts.”

The post Rough and Ready: Artistic Wood-Block Chairs first appeared on Dornob.