Stichting Concrete

I think I'm getting obsessed with furniture made of concrete...

Stitching concrete is a project by using the new material Concrete Canvas.It combines the softness of cloth with the stability of concrete. Once brought in the final shape, you just have to water the material and within 24h it will alomst harden out completely. The challenge was to get into the material and bring it from its rawness to something new. Approching trough patterns, origami and stitchings a unique series of stools got born. Waterproof, fireproof, resistant against UV, durable. The fibre reinforcement makes it strong and the cloth gives back a warm atmosphere.
via chairblog and dezeen

Dressed-Up Furniture

What's going on in your side of the world? Becasue I'm dealing with temperatures of -15 Celcius and snow up to the knees. I am dressed up to the maximum and look like a little penguin. These seem to be dressed up too. In felt.

Spagetthi Bench by Pablo Reinoso

It's early in the morning and I'm rushing to work, but before I'm going to face the cold and wind outside, I wanted to share this one with you. Argentinian designer Pablo Reinoso designed these benches to look like they were put in a very strong wind and the wind tangled them up. Or perhaps they look like tangled up hair? Or roots growing out of the wood? The interpratation is yours. Mr Reinoso called it the Spagetthi Bench.

You May Bench

One of the objects presented at the Young Austrian Design presented in Bunkier Sztuki in Krakow. My friend (her gorgeous high heels visually enhance one of the photos) thought it was the best thing at the exhibition. It wasn't my favourite, but it is pretty impressive with the multitude of functions it posseses.

YOU MAY does many tuhings: it is a bar and a bench, conference table and quiet corner at the same time, it functions as a lounge as well as a stage or workspace. YOU MAY works with innovative materials, different seat heights, it plays with niches and corners. It provides communication and privacy for up to 15 persons in the same spot. The furniture itself becomes a vivid meeting point, it invites to work, discuss, eat and relax.

Designed by Walking Chair and LYNfabrikken

Ubytek Table

In 2009 Warsaw Fine Arts Academy together with Holon Institute of Technology organized design workshops for their students called Idea To Object, Object To Product. Students of both universities worked on projects for the Polish "Być Razem" foundation, working with the unemplyed and socially included. Two tables above were designed by Lukasz Wysoczyński and Daniel Zelig and they both play on the idea of organising objects within the furniture itself. The magazines are simply swept inside the hole cut in the table and after that they work as decoration that can easily be changed. More projects can be seen on the project website.

Wooden Boxes Furniture by Kompott

Searching ebay and surfing the net this weekend, looking for things that would fit in my somewhat empty apartment, I came to realise how many furniture and objects can be made of simple things we use everyday. We are so accustomed to perceiving them in just one way, we forget to experiment and come up with new solutions. This cupboard made of ordinary wooden boxes, that are usually used as the simplest way to transport food and present in so many aspects of our lives, this time found a new purpose and use. It was designed by Love Kompott, Polish group of talented youg designers: Paweł Jasiewicz, Maja Ganszyniec, Krystian Kowalski and Marcin Krygier. Maja Ganszyniec has already been featured at Say Hi!, and you are very welcome to check that post here. Below few words about the project.

Working on a borderline of the Old and the New, we were tempted to reinterpret the most elementary object for storing - a wooden box.. Basing on its construction - using the slots in between the planks - we have developed a simple storage system based on the traditional way of connecting wood.

Furniture from Japan

I was away for a few days (easter and family duties), I hope you didn't get bored to death without the fresh portion of insopiration! :) To start the week off lightly I decided to present something very light as well - furniture concepts by Japanese studio h220430 (if that's really their name, all the numbers sound a bit suspicous...). From left: Baloon Bench, Crutch table, Ivy Chair, Mimic Bench.

Plopp Chair by Oskar Zięta

Oskar Zięta's Plopp Chair, designed for Danish furniture brand Hay, looks like a feable inflatable toy chair. Don't let it fool you though, as there is nothing feable about it. It was made of hydro-formed metal: two sheets of metal are welded together following the outline of the stool, which is then filled with fluid under pressure. The legs of the stool are then bent into place, creating a form that Zieta likens to inflatable furniture. (dzeen). The misleading looks and high quality of both design and the product itself won Oskar Zięta and his Plopp chair the Red Dot Design award in 2008.

Plopp is a complete piece of design that went through all the FIDU forming process stages and experiments. We managed to bring the final form of Plopp after building many prototypes and testing the 'bionic', 'alive' behaviour of inflated steel. (zieta.pl) Check out the making-of video after the break.

Kenneth Cobonpue - Bloom Chair

With the spring blooming outside my windows, I decided to share with you something blooming as well - The Bloom chair by the amazing Fillipino desinger Kenneth Cobonpue.  Kenneth is an industrial designer known for his signature designs in natural fibres and materials. His designs mainly focus on nature's forms using rattan, buri, bamboo, and abaca (wiki).

Inspired by the graceful bloom of a flower, this lounge chair is sculpted by hundreds of fine running stitches radiating from the center of the seat creating subtle textures. Invisible supports form shapes reminiscent of soft and graceful musical tones. The Bloom sits on top of a steel base which provides a good counterpoint to its playful organic form.

Luis Luna's Furniture

Some time ago I published a couple of short posts about furniture and product design by Luis Luna - a full time dreamer, part time designer and occasional storyteller. I was impressed with his lamp made of used plastic cups  and the Heineken crate. This time, browsing through his portfolio on Behance, I stumbled upon Luis' take on the design classics: Barcelona chair by Mies Van Der Rohe and LC2 by Ray and Charles Eames. I ♥ the way he is not intimidated by the design icons, can you see how the Barcelona chair comes out of a suitcase...?