Birds by Matti Klenell for Iittala

Inspired by the magpie, Matti Klenell has created a new addition to the Iittala Birds collection. The magpie is well-known for stealing jewellery and other shiny objects and hiding them in their nests. Klenell wanted to incorporate the same idea of hiding something into his new pieces. In the process, he has given his glass birds a practical use alongside their aesthetic one – drawing on the varied skills of the glassblowers and craftsmen at Iittala’s Nuutajärvi glassworks.

Klenell has designed two bird families for Iittala: the Harakka (Magpie) family and the Korpi (Deep Forest) family, both with two generations of members. Klenell’s birds comprise two or three parts, which adds to their sculptural qualities. They also include a functional feature that is unique in the Iittala Birds collection, as the hollow bottom sections of his birds can be used as handy little containers to keep treasures, such as jewellery, notes, and memories, just like the magpie.

“There’s a long tradition of using glass objects as hiding places, and there are many examples in mythology and history of urns and vases being used for this purpose. The stolen diamonds in detective stories are often thrown into a Ming vase, and people playing computer games often need to look inside an urn to find further clues for the game.”
– Matti Klenell

Buy it here: Birds by Matti Klenell, for Iittala

Rietveld LEGO Buffet by Minale-Maeda for Droog

Dutch based design duo Minale-Maeda (Kuniko Maeda and Mario Minale) playfully reprise Gerrit Rietveld’s grace to reconsider his de Stijl masterwork, Buffet for dutch design company Droog. The Rietveld LEGO Buffet uses over 25,000 pieces of LEGO, updating the de Stijl’s call for simplified materials through the use of the iconic toy building blocks known to us as children, creating a re-iteration of one of modern design’s most relevant historical suggestions.

Rietveld LEGO Buffet, Limited Edition of 5, by Minale-Maeda, for Droog
via: designboom

Tua Table Lamp by Marco Zito for Foscarini

A table lamp with which you can create a personal relationship; surprisingly simple, because it has been thought out with a great deal of care. Tua is inspired by the palm of the hand containing a light: a gesture interpreted in a single, shaped metal plane that is both the support and shade of the lamp. The light source is hidden inside the range of the curve, whose aesthetic has a characteristically fine cut. When the light is on, it creates a pleasantly intimate glow, perfect for all those spaces dedicated to the single person (bedside table or work table). The lamp lends itself even to a multiple interpretation: interior-exterior, two-dimensional/three-dimensional, a graphic sign and a functional lamp, which is always elegant, reassuring and friendly.

Tua Table Lamp, by Marco Zito, for Foscarini

Malva Lights by ett la benn

Malva is a series of lights inspired by the natural qualities of cellulose and viscose: the objects are generated by the forming of moistened sponge cloth and its subsequent hardening by air drying on a mould. The translation of this customary material into individual design pieces through basic processes of forming and drying measures up to the highest demands in sustainability and eco friendliness: all objects are compostable.

Malva Lights, by ett la benn

Whirlwind by A+A cooren

A+A cooren has designed a glass vase representing the shape of a water vortex or a tornado.

Whirlwind by A+A cooren, Gallery S. Bensimon, June 9 to 14, 111 rue de Turenne, Paris, France, Photography by Joao Viera Torres

Candlesticks by Victoria Delany

Silversmith and recent graduate of the Royal College of Art, Victoria Delany has designed a set of silver and lacquered wood candlesticks. The central wooden parts are interchangeable making an endless number of interesting and colourful combinations. The top and base of the candlestick unscrews allowing you to stack the lacquered wooden components up in any combination and height.

Candlesticks by Victoria Delany, Photography by Matthew Booth

Layer by Luca Nichetto for Gallotti & Radice

The idea of generating tables of different heights through the repetition of a single building block is what informs Layer, a table composed of a glass tabletop supported by a base made by stacking a variable number of wooden rings which repropose the structure of a pals trunk. The use of the rings is what allows the table’s height and dimensions to be varied, depending on whether one or two columns are employed and how many rings are stacked to create them.

Layer, by Luca Nichetto, for Gallotti & Radice

Air Vase by Torafu Architects

Made entirely of paper, Air Vase is a vessel that can be stretched and pulled into multiple variations in shape.

Air Vase, by Torafu Architects

OTTO by Carlos Tíscar for Girsberger

Carlos Tíscar has designed OTTO, a bench program for the Swiss company Girsberger. Seat and backrest fully upholstered with pocket spring core, fabric or leather, with a steel chromed frame.

OTTO, by Carlos Tíscar, for Girsberger

Exhibition: Space Age Lights at Triennale Design Museum

Triennale Design Museum presents a selection of over sixty table lamps designed and made in the 1960s and early 70s, dubbed by historians of design as “Space Age”, it is an era of great social change, but also the era in which international politics were focused on the imaginary collective achievements as a landing space for a fruitful and truly progressive modernity.

The lamps on display come from international collections, ranging from the mass produced, to pieces made by well known designers such as Joe Colombo, Vico Magistretti, Gino Sarfatti and Giotto Wick.

Space Age Lights, 12 May – 05 September, Triennale di Milano, Milan, Italy