Kaj Franck Table Remade by Matti Klenell

After a visit at the glass factory in the Nuutajärvi village in the middle of Finland, Swedish designer Matti Klenell found a very special design by Kaj Franck. It ended up with a personal interpretation of the table as a homage to the great Finnish designer.

“The Nuutajärvi village in the middle of Finland has one major industry and that is their famous glass factory. Over the years masters such as Tapio Wirkkala and Kaj Franck worked here as artistic leaders and much of their designs are still in production by Iittala who the factory now belongs to. In the 1970s Kaj Franck designed a small museum dedicated to glass in an old building that used to serve as a brewery. It’s a beautiful space with an almost mysterious aura. One of the items on display stayed in my mind long after paying my first visit. It was a low table with strange legs. On the table top there was a map showing the Nuutajärvi surroundings displayed under a glass surface and on top of that laid a thick piece of solid glass to use as a magnifying glass enabeling you to properly read all the details of the layout. I decided to design a remake of it. Something different but with an echo of what I remembered from the museum. My table is made of solid ash wood and the top is an engraved glass sheet. The detailed drawing is based on various sketches I made during the project and took me four days to engrave.”
- Matti Klenell

Exhibition: Kokeshi, at Galleri IngerMolin, Stockholm, Sweden, September 24 – October 10
Photos 1-3 © Jason Strong Photography, via: David Report

Clock for an Acrobat by Daniel Weil

Daniel Weil’s new clock explores parallels in the way time moves in space and an acrobat moves along a wire.

“Just as gravity is the medium of the acrobat, so it is the medium of ‘Clock for an Acrobat,’” says Daniel Weil. Second in a series to his “Clock for an Architect,” Weil’s latest design revisits themes that have interested him for over 25 years.

The materials are ash and nickel-plated brass and silver. For the movement, Weil sought parallels between the way time moves in circles and in space, and the way an acrobat moves along a wire: both precarious, both precise, both balanced. As the wheel turns on its track, gravity steers the glass bearing to six o’clock. This prompts the user to reset the dial, acting as an active re-arranger of time.

The battery is held in midair by positive and negative power lines that feed the clock’s movement. Appropriately, it is the only part of this gravity-defined clock that defies gravity.

Clock for an Acrobat, by Daniel Weil, Pentagram

Jamirang Sofa by Bora Kim

Ja-mi-rang refers to falling into sleep, with sleep in Korean language. Glamorous solid characteristic shows comfort that ease the tension, straightly stretched legs from round cushion express its abstained force on soft lines.

Jamirang sofa No.1, Jamirang sofa No.2, by Bora Kim

Notchless Tape Dispenser by Mamoru Yasukuni

Notchless is an adhesive tape dispenser which leaves clean, straight edges without zig-zags on cut tape, simply by tearing it on the edge of a blade in the same easy way as with conventional tape dispensers. Adhesive tape without zigzags has an attractive appearance, and it does not break up when peeled as does tape cut with conventional dispensers. It thus has the advantage of not causing stickiness or dirtiness at the cut edge, increasing the utility of adhesive tape. This patented blade technology cuts adhesive tape with a straight edge in an easy and safe manner.

Notchless Tape Dispenser, by Mamoru Yasukuni, Kikuchi-Yasukuni Architects

Aluminum Stool #1 by Monstrans

The idea for the aluminum stool came from a fascination with airplane, bridge and ship building parts that plainly display the way the industrial machine body is assembled. Made from five 18 gauge bent and riveted aluminum pieces, the stool is naturally strong and light and weighs less than 2 lbs., which makes it inexpensive to ship to you and easy for you to carry around. Once assembled, the metal parts are power coated, then the seat is cut from 1/4” thick natural wool felt, and adhered to the stool to serve as a soft resilient pad for the body.

Aluminum Stool #1, by Monstrans

Exhibition: Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, Bivouac

The Centre Pompidou-Metz presents the first major exhibition in France dedicated to the work of Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec.

A fabulous Bivouac, staged across 1,000 square metres in Galerie 3 of the Centre Pompidou-Metz, this exhibition of works by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec sets out the result of almost fifteen years of mutual collaboration. Their first major solo show in France, Bivouac highlights an exceptional international career, during which the two brothers have worked with some of the greatest names in design, been crowned by numerous awards and the presence of their work in public collections.

Imagined as a temporary encampment – hence its name – Bivouac is deliberately divested of scenographic elements other than the Bouroullecs’ work. Movement is imparted by contrasting scales, transparency and superpositions. Visitors are invited to wander around the gallery, moving between prototypes and finished objects, mass-produced and hand-crafted works. Bivouac highlights the immense diversity of these creations and economies achieved in production. It also addresses key concepts in the Bouroullecs’ research: objects which are nomadic, ephemeral, modular, organic, flexible.

The exhibition is neither an inventory nor a retrospective of their work. Rather, it illustrates the current state of their designs and research, in constant evolution.

Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, Bivouac, 7 October - 30 July, at Centre Pompidou-Metz

Cronotime Desk Clock by Pio Manzù

The Cronotime clock was designed by Pio Manzù as a promotional item for Fiat, later produced by Ritz-Italora in 1966. It was re-issued by Alessi from Italy. The shape of Cronotime is toric (part of a circular section ring) totalling a 1/6 of circumference. The shape in turn separated into two equal parts which swivel, allowing you to modulate the direction in which the dial is pointing with respect to the support surface. Part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.

Cronotime by Pio Manzù

Exhibition: Edward Barber & Jay Osgerby: Ascent

Eight new pieces on show, which are the outcome of a collaboration between the [British design studio Barber Osgerby] and the gallery, investigate the structures and engineered forms of moving craft, such as the fine-like shape of wall-mountedbrass structure Foil V.

Corona 800 and Corona 1100 are two large discs which emit light. one is made from mirror-polished brass, while the other is a brilliantly colored red one, each appearing is if they are hovering just off the wall. These are displayed with a vertical wall-mounted, mirror-polished brass panel.

Their exploration and use of transportation structures is very apparent in Frame 1, a large, wall-mounted structure for which Barber Osgerby sought out a British boat builder to make. The British designers love of craftsmanship and attention to detail are evident with Planform Array V and Planform Array H, two chandeliers with 8 and 14 segments respectively. the frame-like portions are covered with handmade Japanese paper that has been hand-stitched into each part.

Exhibition: Ascent by Barber Osgerby (Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby), until November 19th, at Haunch of Venison, London, via: designboom

Fred and Ginger by Roberto Lazzeroni for Poltrona Frau

A soft leather shell, comfortable and protective. A refined and simple easy chair. Neat, essential, and comfortable. Roberto Lazzeroni designed the Ginger chair both as a natural accompaniment to the Fred desk, and as a separate seat.

The swivel version is perfect for a study area, while the fixed model is ideal for a dining table. There is a continual play of references between Ginger and Fred in the design, materials and workmanship. Ginger’s frame is in special rigid, high density, low thickness, moulded polyurethane. It is completely covered by a single layer of 5 mm thick Saddle Leather Extra, in two variants: Dark Brown or Camel.

Fred Desk, Ginger Chair, by Roberto Lazzeroni, for Poltrona Frau

Antic biotec by eliumstudio and Duende Studio

eliumstudio was invited by Duende Studio to reconsider the “vinaigrier” (french for vinegar maker), an accessory that’s common to country kitchens.

Antic biotec blends the wine bottle and the pipette, common to oenologists and scientists, to offer a new “noble tasting ritual, highlighted by the delicacy of the blown glass and porcelain.”

“Vinegar is one of the very first biotechnology applications developed by man using acetic bacteria to change wine into a completely new product.”

“A preciosity of the often ignored vinegar that Nick Toshes was already pointing out in the opening of his mythical Confessions d’un chasseur d’opium (Confessions of an Opium Hunter): ‘Those people who know that the true soul of wine is vinegar, hold the key to the only worthy knowledge concerning wine. The wonderful taste becomes apparent by drinking shots of these mature and rare vinegars labelled da bere: the real thing is a far cry from the industrial crap masked with pretentious epithets.’”

Antic Biotec Vinegar Maker, by Duende Studio, and eliumstudio
via: MoCo Loco