Marble, Modernized
The apotheosis of the recent trend for making light (literally) of marble, Marsotto Edizioni’s third collection turned the Renaissance’s choice material on its head, making it look featherweight, tissue-thin and clean of line. Marsotto art director James Irvine produced improbably slender café tables by Alberto Meda, the cartoonish Poodle end table by Naoto Fukasawa and a slightly cantilevering, sharp-edged umbrella stand by the young Maddalena Casadei. Joel Berg’s cylindrical Luma floor lamps feature heavy stone “shades” that nonetheless glow like (marbled) rice paper. (See slide show.) marsotto-edizioni.com
In Perspective
Though co-founder Alisdhair Willis had moved on to new pastures and the old-school La Pelota space was given over to a dispiriting Hermès exhibition, Established & Sons’ creative director, Sebastian Wrong, remained firmly in place for his seventh collection. In it, for a second year in a row, Wrong included textiles, blankets, and carpets with, in particular, fantastical takes on the modern tapestry by Klaus Haapaniemi and Mia Wallenius. But it is with a piece that recalls the simplest gestures of early collections—his perspective-skewing Perspective shelving—that Wrong was at his strongest, using distortion as a way to see objects more clearly. establishedandsons.com
Structural
Works by Patricia Urquiola appeared at seemingly every turn this year. For B&B Italia, the Milan-based, Spanish-born designer produced the quilted, Bucky Fuller–esque Husk armchair (see slide show). Equally striking is her chaise lounge for Moroso, called Big Knit, which consists of a chunky wooden chassis strung with an industrial-scale stocking stitch made from “yarns” as wide as an arm. The stitch, vastly enlarged, serves as both surface and structure and gives new meaning to the term “cable knit.” bebitalia.it, moroso.it
(Don’t Stop) Knocking it Off
How Ligne Roset got license to produce Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec’s overstuffed, deeply tufted Ploum sofa—which so closely resembles their 2010 Quilt sofa and pouf for Established & Sons—is beyond us. We’re just glad they did. ligneroset.com, bouroullec.com
Frugal
Paris-based Moustache introduced designs that riff on European furniture classics: François Azambourg’s Petite Gigue, a three-legged oak chair, and Matali Crasset’s Instant line (see slide show), consisting of a plywood trestle table and matching seats. The tabletop is made of pieces leftover from the process of cutting the base. Waste not, want not. moustache.fr, azambourg.fr, matalicrasset.com
Smokin’
Hemp, that most ugly and clichéd of green materials, has been given new life in an aesthetically sustainable way. Werner Aisslinger’s Hemp Chair (see slide show) may be the world’s first natural-fiber monochair. Its cannabis fibers were molded under heat, using an eco-friendly adhesive, into a natural composite that looks great unfinished, and has the strength to cantilever in a swank, coolly laid-back curve. aisslinger.de
In the Mood
Announcing what we hope to be the last salvo in the Snuggie vs. Slanket war! For the exuberantly named label, Kkaarrll’s, Hanna Emilie Ernsting has created the Moody couch (see slide show). Moody’s upholstery is several meters too big for it, inviting users to snuggle up and in. There’s enough throw blanket for two, as long as one of you is a large piece of living room furniture. kkaarrlls.com, hannaernsting.com
Modular
Mechanical-engineer-turned-designer Yuya Ushida’s XXXX series for Ahrend is made up of eight injection-molded recycled PET components, including rings, joints, and four different lengths of stick. When snapped together, the elements create a deep honeycomb pattern that can be formed into a sofa, stool, table, and other configurations (see slide show). The stool can even be collapsed like a telescope for easy portage or storage. yuyavsdesign.com, ahrend.com
Finicky
Last year, the four-man Swedish studio Brikolör paid for a fair booth in which the designers displayed nothing because, at the eleventh hour, they were unsatisfied with the quality of their prototypes. This year, the booth was crowded with finely crafted pieces such as the arched, modular, tricolor glass shelving, Bågar, which resembles a Roman aqueduct but comes in cheerful shades of pink and in tawny, transparent grays. (See slide show.) brikolor.com
Brick House
To mark the 30th anniversary of Ettore Sottsass’ Memphis Movement, Milan’s Post Design Galleria commissioned English artist Richard Woods (co-author of the comic book-looking Wrong Woods furniture series for Established & Sons) to follow up on his red-brick bean bag of 2008 with the Red Brick collection. Woods hand-painted 16 pieces of limited-edition wooden furniture to resemble faux brick, including items such as a trestle table, a dolly-cum-coffee table, a retaining wall-like end table complete with wicker lamp, a leaning post topped with a single bare bulb and even a fireplace with a ventilation fan in the hearth instead of kindling. richardwoodsstudio.com, www.memphis-milano.it
Flowing
The stackable Tip Ton chair, designed by British design darlings Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby for Vitra, resembles a sled with long runners and a diminutive backrest. (See slide show.) Though not a rocking chair with great amplitude, the polypropylene Tip Ton can be set into motion with a gentle shift of one’s weight. Because movement increases the flow of oxygen through the body, office workers or anyone who sits for extended periods will benefit from a little tipple now and then. www.vitra.com, barberosgerby.com
Benchmarks
Further developing its Plaid Bench project of last fall, London-based Raw-Edges Design Studio has recently designed an entire PlaidBench Collection, including coffee tables, for Milan gallery Dilmos Milano. Shay Alkalay and Yael Mer deconstructed the ubiquitous public bench and recomposed its elements by slotting colored wooden varicolored slats into each other horizontally to create the seat or tabletop and vertically to form multiple, even extraneous, legs. raw-edges.com, www.dilmos.com
Changeling
The rudimentary, metal-fastened wooden frame of Minale-Maeda’s Wanna-be Wardrobe for Droog can be clad in various fabrics. Users even have the option to buy a few “garments” for their fashionista closet and change them out at a whim. But what to do when the closet that contains your clothes is a clothes-horse too? droog.com, minale-maeda.com
Back to Basics
Washington, D.C.–based Jonah Takagi’s New Basics collection features tables of surpassing (visual) simplicity that pack flat for shipping. Topped with recycled HPL-finished honeycomb, the table legs are made from FSC-certified ash with laser-cut and powdercoated steel hardware that gives the pieces a cleanly trussed look. ateliertakagi.com
