Artek Stool 60: Alvar Aalto: Rings by Nao Tamura

Contained within a single tree is its unabridged chronicle
Year by year, never skipping a beat, it records its history slowly.
Some lines speak of seasons of plenty, while others cry of famine.
The size of the rings are never the same.
Each engraving bears witness to battles waged in the name of survival.
To observe such is to humble ourselves to nature’s love of life.

“This celebration was created by layering upon the chair’s beautiful geometric shape, a complex and organic graphic of life. My hope is that the Artek “Stool 60″ will evoke the bounty of nature as seen by the passage of 80 years of time.”
- Nao Tamura

Artek Stool 60: Alvar Aalto: Rings, by Nao Tamura, for Artek America, The Design Trust for Public Spaces Auction

Vederlicht (Featherlight) by Daniel Hulsbergen

“Vederlicht is a fascination that I had when I was a small child, the fascination of model glider plane. Back then these planes cost too much for me to buy and I only could look at them in the shop. The small kid in me is still there so I took the technique and material for making a glider and used it to design lighting. The material used in this design is Balsawood and Oracover which is used to cover the wings of a glider and gives the lamp altogether it’s ultra lightweight.”
- Daniel Hulsbergen

Vederlicht (Featherlight), by Daniel Hulsbergen

Magique by Studio Klass for Liv’it by Fiam

“Magique extends the traditional concept of the side-table to a flexible project for a variety of uses and spaces in the home. Thanks to a play of intersecting volumes, Magique offers three different shelves, accessible from each of its four sides, while it creates a pretty combination of nuances as the objects it contains shine through.”
Manufactured in 10 mm welded glass and available in various finishes: transparent glass structure and cube, extralight glass structure and opal white glass cube, extralight glass structure and smoked grey glass cube, smoked grey glass structure and Black95 glass cube.

Magique, by Studio Klass, for Liv’it by Fiam, Photography © Pietro Cocco

Pelt Chair by Benjamin Hubert for De La Espada

Pelt is a dining chair comprised of plywood and solid ash launching at the London Design Festival in collaboration with Portuguese manufacturer De La Espada. The chair has a thin 8mm plywood shell that wraps around a solid ash frame, akin the skin over an animal’s skeleton. It extends down the front and rear legs with a fluid tab that seamlessly integrates with the solid frame beneath. The frame of the chair has been reduced to a simple cross construction linking the front and rear legs. This geometry was made possible by cncing a complex twist to maintain the integration of the start and end points. The chair also offers efficient stacking with its ability to stack 6 chairs.

Pelt Chair, by Benjamin Hubert, for De La Espada

The M Lamp by David Irwin

It has been said that lamps were the most important invention for miners in the 19th century. Today, we’re each miners in our own way — searching, innovating and changing the world around us.

The M Lamp — the world’s most advanced wireless task lamp. Powered by a superior integrated lithium iron phosphate battery, these simple yet beautiful tools for life and work are wireless and can be transported anywhere within the home, office and in between.

The M Lamp, by David Irwin

Mayor Sofa by Arne Jacobsen for &tradition

The Danish design company &tradition has introduced the Mayor Sofa designed by designer and architect Arne Jacobsen for Søllerød City Hall in 1939. The sofa is one of his early designs and has not been put into production until now.

Mayor Sofa, by Arne Jacobsen, for &tradition

Tenda by Benjamin Hubert Research

Tenda is a series of textile lamps launching at the London Design Festival as a result of Benjamin Hubert’s materials driven research
Tenda Italian for tent is comprised of materials from a diverse mix of industries: Fibre glass rods from the kite manufacturing industry, Lycra from the sports industry, 4 way stretch mesh from the underwear industry, A construction technique from the tent industry.
The primary component of the lamp series is a multi layered construction of textile. The exterior is covered by a quad-directional high stretch micro mesh. This give the lamp its volume and an ethereal lightness with a sense of varying opacity depending on your viewing position. The internal layers are constructed from Lycra which diffuses the light source. The interplay between external stretched convex curves and internal concave forms creates a dynamic typology of components and progressive design language. These layers of textile are supported by flexible fibre glass rods held in tension by textile and brass connectors. The technical textile system has been developed in house over a period of 12 months after several iterations of prototyping and testing.

Tenda, by Benjamin Hubert Research

Blaster Chair by James Irvine

“NgispeN is a company which seems to want to enjoy itself. If I think about furniture to enjoy I think about those wonderful time wasting moments in life. Those moments when you want to do nothing. Maybe just spin around and let time drift by. Maybe wait for someone to come up and say hello. So I thought of a cone sitting on another cone and where the two cones meet they rotate. Then I realised it looked a bit like the nozzle of a rocket engine so I gave the chair the name Blaster.”

Blaster Chair, by James Irvine, for NgispeN

Röhsska Chair by CKR for the Swedish Design Museum

Röhsska Chair, by Claesson Koivisto Rune, for The Röhsska Museum of Fashion, Design and Decorative Arts

Nymphéa by Vaulot&Dyevre for Galerie Gosserez

The Nymphea project is a chandelier that reverses the usual workings of ceiling lights. Whilst suspended from the ceiling, one looks at the chandelier from above. This switching between up and down creates an original lighting atmosphere, both intimate and close to the floor. The possibility to change the orientation of the lights also contributes to the design of the lamp. Like water lilies, the disks that make the lamp seem to float above an invisible surface. The observer can think that one has his feet in the water and looks to the bottom of an imaginary pond.

Nymphéa, Limited Edition of 15 Pieces, by Vaulot&Dyevre, for Galerie Gosserez