Yara Chair by Girsberger for Girsberger

Yara Chair, by Stefan Westmeyer, for Girsberger

AC02 Jewel by Saskia Diez for e15

The jewellery case AC02 JEWEL marks e15’s first collaboration with the German designer Saskia Diez, most known for her unique jewellery designs as well as her recently launched and awarded travel bag “Papier”. Her progressive, sensual and detailed designs, innovative use of high quality materials and cultural references from traditional and modern perfectly match e15’s aesthetics and design philosophy.

AC02 JEWEL is a modular four piece jewellery case, hand finished in solid European walnut. The interior of each of the three shaped stackable cases has different interior partitions, which conveniently lend themselves to the storing of jewellery or precious objects. The top sheath finishes with a closing top. The tactile appearance of AC02 JEWEL reflects the aesthetics and design language of e15, featuring the pure use of material, simplicity and function.

AC02 JEWEL, by Saskia Diez, for e15

Allas Candelabrum by Andreas Engesvik for Iittala

Norwegian designer Andreas Engesvik’s new candelabrum for Iittala innovatively combines traditional cast iron with a modern, Scandinavian design. Engesvik says his designs are inspired by his environment and the everyday: flea markets, people, houses, new things – everything that you notice when having a look around. The idea of the Allas (pool in Finnish) candelabrum was born while he was having dinner with friends.

“I was sitting with friends enjoying a lamb roast on a dark autumn evening. The dining table was filled with an assortment of different candleholders and I was looking at the reflection their light gave off oin the windows. The candles, set at different heights, created a beautiful image in the window and were a strong source of light and atmosphere. The plates on the table and the reflections of light provided the inspiration for a pool full of light.”

Allas Candelabrum, by Andreas Engesvik, for Iittala

Gates Indoor Croquet Set by Romain Lagrange

Gates is an interior croquet game for adult players. It’s composed of sycamore, maple, cork and leather. It was realised thanks to French and Swiss craftsmen. The lines of this game, composed of too many parts, have been simplified from the original to make it compact and usable inside. There are two mallets, six gates and two stakes. The unit is portable due to the leather loop. For the wink, Louis XIV, one of France’s kings, liked playing croquet but he couldn’t play during winter, therefore he forsook it. It disappeared from France to be played more in Scotland and the UK. That’s why I tried to answer to an old royal need.

Gates, Indoor Croquet Set, by, Romain Lagrange

CMYK Lamp by Dennis Parren

During the Design Academy Eindhoven’s 2011 graduation show, Dutch designer Dennis Parren presented his experimental CMYK Lamp colored shadows with LED light. Whilst discovering by accident that the shadow lines were 3D, this LED technology lamp embodies the colorful mysteries of light.

“You can’t really say ‘that chair is red’. Actually, the chair is reflecting red light while absorbing green and blue light. It is the light that colors the world. This CMYK Lamp plays with the mystery of light and color and projects an elusive network of lines of cyan, magenta and yellow light on the ceiling. Designed not to be understood but to show that light is the only rightful owner of color.”
- Dennis Parren

CMYK Lamp by, Dennis Parren, via: flodeau

Intervalle by Pierre Charpin for Crystal Saint Louis

Intervalle, by Pierre Charpin, for Crystal Saint Louis

Exhibition: Mobilier National at Demisch Danant

The Mobilier National is the successor to the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne (the entity originally responsible for the safeguarding of royal furnishings and tapestries), which was reorganized by Colbert in 1663; its structure still serves as the basis for the current administration’s organization. In addition to maintaining inventories and conserving and caring for furnishings, the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne also acted as an important force for preserving classic techniques through its traditional workshops. It was responsible for furnishing royal residences and issued the commissions necessary for these programs. This remains the central role for the Mobilier National, which is now responsible for the interior design and furnishing of presidential residences, as well as official buildings (ministries, embassies, major government agencies, the National Assembly, and the Senate).

In the early 1960s, the French government, under the leadership of André Malraux, then the Minister of Culture, inaugurated a policy of supporting creative endeavor; the objective was to provide genuine patronage that would foster the revival of French furniture design. As part of this commitment, the Atelier de Recherche et de Création (ARC) was established in 1964 under the direction of Jean Coural. The mission of this entity was to promote contemporary French styles, providing designers with modern technical resources and manufacturers with distribution opportunities, based on carefully directed research.

The ARC is a research laboratory with a highly qualified staff devoted to studying new materials and creating prototypes that are developed through collaboration with designers and in close cooperation with interested manufacturers. The design models remain the property of the government but may be subsequently distributed by a French producer.

The finest designers of the 1960s and 1970s worked with Mobilier National, and the most significant creations of the era were products of this venture. Since its inception, the ARC has produced over 500 pieces of furniture, including special commissions for french pavilions at expositions of Montreal and Osaka, presidential residences and offices, and more recently the French embassy in Berlin and the Ministry of Culture and of Communication.

Exhibition: Mobilier National, New York, November 8 – February 11, at Demisch Danant

Mingskatable by Jean-Charles de Castelbajac & LAQ Executive

Intrigued by the confrontation between savoir-faire and contemporary culture, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac accepted the challenge proposed by LAQ to be involved in the creation of the Mingskatable. From discussions to reflections, the designers from LAQ and JCDC designed a resolutely contemporary coffee table combining beauty and originality. Resulting from the clash between the history of Chinese Ming furniture, the ancestral art of Japan and urban culture, the Mingskatable table evokes both the golden age of Chinese furniture and ‘street culture.’

Mingskatable, by Jean-Charles de Castelbajac and LAQ Executive, at Galerie BSL, Paris

Cirkel by Daphna Laurens at Galerie Gosserez

The new pieces designed by Daphna Laurens and presented in the Cirkel exhibition at Galerie Gosserez are all based on the same shape: the circle. ‘Fantasy embellishes the object by encircling it, and, as it were, illuminating it from within with those precious images of which it reminds us or to which we feel an instinctive connection.’ Luigi Pirandello, 1904. The two designers tested their ideas by playing with this elementary shape for months in their studio in Eindhoven thus producing their preliminary drawings. Basic forms and lines inspired them. Bauhaus was of course one of their sources of inspiration, and Laszlo Moholy Nagy in particular inspired the wall lights. Daphna Laurens wanted to create a wall light which was an art piece during the day when not lit, and of course a functional wall light once switched on. This double formal and functional language best characterises the two designers incidentally. Their pieces do not immediately reveal the function of the object. The form comes first, through the design, the function is second. The mirrors and the coffee table thus result from a meticulous collage of forms, adding or removing lines, volumes and surfaces to accomplish these objects which have formal beauty as well as being functional of which the table is emblematic: the circle is manipulated here in every form, extruded, twisted, … to offer a double function: storage and a table. Whilst the lamp for leaning against the wall is a little creature which is looking through the walls to the other side, completes a collection with humour reserved for strangely inhabited everyday objects.

Cirkel by, Daphna Laurens, at Galerie Gosserez, November 24 – January 14, Paris, France

Airline_009 Chair by Cory Grosser for Walt Disney Signature

In 1938, with the success of, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Walt Disney began to plan the construction of the ultimate animation studio in Burbank, California. Walt wanted his studio designed to facilitate optimum production, which is why he commissioned the design of the Airline Chair (1934). The chair was used by the animators throughout the studio including the screening room. Produced in limited quantities for Walt, the original Airline Chair has become one of the most sought after Art Moderne products ever designed. In 2007, Walt Disney Signature, Disney’s adult lifestyle brand, contacted Cory to imagine a new armchair and ottoman inspired by the original chair from 1934. Through careful design choices, the chair references the past but appears light, elegant and unmistakably modern.

Airline_009 Chair, by Cory Grosser, for Walt Disney Signature