Archie Chair by Nick Garnham & Rod Carlson for Jardan

The Archie chair and sofa are inspired by the Australian porch lifestyle. Finely crafted from Solid American Oak using traditional joinery techniques. With its inviting stance and charming nature, you can’t help but relax with Archie.

Archie Chair, by Nick Garnham and Rod Carlson, for Jardan, Melbourne, Australia

kime by Mikiya Kobayashi for Dreamy Person Inc.

“kime” is the Japanese word for texture or wood grain, and a new line of wood products designed by Mikiya Kobayashi for Dreamy Person Inc.

Wood has a distinct texture which gives out warmth and a sense of security, and the wood grain seen on the surface expresses its powerful ability to survive. The brand name “kime” comes from the aspiration to create wooden products emphasizing the fascinating texture and wood grain to suit modern life. Products are made with the greatest care by craftsmen from Asahikawa City, Hokkaido who love and thoroughly understands wood.

kime, Bottle Opener, Pen Case, Toothpick Holder, Shoe Horn, Tape Measure, by Mikiya Kobayashi, for Dreamy Person Inc.

Scent Stories by Ah&Oh Studio

Perfume packaging design and the concept of the perfume were always our dream project. So we took men’s fragrance as our challenge. At the begining we were concentrating on the idea of the scent itself. We found inspiration in the great, dark literature and distinctive, strong characters. We tried to describe the dark sides of men’s nature with line of scents named after famous writers. We packed the scents into bottles which resemble both old glass perfume bottles and the classic shape of the inkwell. We made them white, added black strong lettering and heads of characters which loosely recall author’s famous masterpieces.

Scent Stories, by Ah&Oh Studio

Icon: Iittala Tools Cookware by Björn Dahlström

If there is one set of cookware which fits all the requirements of a well-appointed kitchen, then the Tools collection from Iittala is the one to have. Designer Björn Dahlström worked in collaboration with world-class chefs and materials specialists to create attractive yet highly functional cookware whose features and construction lend themselves to a variety of cooking techniques. The in-depth research and attention to ergonomics has given us a set of cookware that is now seen in three star restaurants as well as the modern home.

Tools are built to scale, they are well suited for large dinner parties as well as for everyday use. The line consists of saucepans, sauteuses, and casseroles in various sizes, as well as rectangular oven roasting pans in two sizes. The saucepans and casseroles feature tight-fitting lids and have measuring marks etched on their interiors. The lid is designed with a little notch to allow steam to escape while cooking—a real advantage over the more common pots with lids that tend to rattle and boil over.

The Tools collection is made of fine stainless steel which is remarkably easy to clean. Iittala has decided to go with quality all the way, their philosophy “Against Throwawayism” is evident as the Tools collection will last a lifetime and you will be able to pass it on to your grandchildren.

Björn Dahlström, Iittala Tools Cookware, by Dahlström Design AB

Books: Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking

Modernist Cuisine is a five-volume, set that is destined to reinvent cooking. The lavishly illustrated books use thousands of original images to make the science and technology clear and engaging.

A revolution is underway in the art of cooking. Just as French Impressionists upended centuries of tradition, Modernist cuisine has in recent years blown through the boundaries of the culinary arts. Borrowing techniques from the laboratory, pioneering chefs at world-renowned restaurants such as elBulli, The Fat Duck, Alinea, and wd~50 have incorporated a deeper understanding of science and advances in cooking technology into their culinary art.

In Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking, Nathan Myhrvold, Chris Young, and Maxime Bilet—scientists, inventors, and accomplished cooks in their own right—have created a massive, five-volume 2,400-page set that reveals science-inspired techniques for preparing food that ranges from the otherworldly to the sublime. The authors—and their 20-person team at The Cooking Lab—have achieved astounding new flavors and textures by using tools such as water baths, homogenizers, centrifuges, and ingredients such as hydrocolloids, emulsifiers, and enzymes. It is a work destined to reinvent cooking.

“This book will change the way we understand the kitchen.”
— Ferran Adrià

“A fascinating overview of the techniques of modern gastronomy.”
— Heston Blumenthal

Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking, by Nathan Myhrvold, Chris Young, and Maxime Bilet, Hardcover, 2,400 Pages, Published by The Cooking Lab,
ISBN 9780982761007

Buy it here: Amazon

Deneb Specimen Editions by Guillaume Delvigne

Presented at the Designer’s Days in Paris, Deneb is a vessel composed of a glass vase and cork stand, and continues Guillaume Delvigne’s series of Limited Editions

Deneb Specimen Editions, by Guillaume Delvigne, and Glass Blower Matteo Gonet, Photography by Gabriel Vienna

Exhibition: Re-loved Panton Chair by Chris Bosse of LAVA

Australian Architect Chris Bosse has built a sliced up homage to the 1967 Panton Chair as part of this year’s Sydney Design Festival. The designer has “…chosen to represent this shape as slices, similar to an MRI scan in order to make visible its complex three-dimensional geometry. The chair is metaphorically and physically carved out of a sliced box”, says Bosse. “The project retro-digitises the chair design, although it was the chair that preceded the digital design revolution.”

Re-loved, Panton Chair, by Chris Bosse, LAVA, 31 July – 30 September 2010,
Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia, during the Sydney Design Festival

Bottle Pendant-Floor-Table Lamp by Mattias Ståhlbom for Zero

The Swedish designer Mattias Ståhlbom of TAF Arkitektkontor, has come up with a clever light with many options. The light is shaped like a bottle with a cap which can be hung with a wire on the ceiling. The cap is made of diecasted aluminium and is painted or left natural. “Use it as a pendant, on the floor, on the table or at the wall. Use it everywhere, even outside,” says Ståhlbom.

Zero Bottle Pendant, Floor & Table Lamp, by Mattias Ståhlbom, TAF Arkitektkontor, for Zero

Das Neue Kubitscheck by designliga

“Tell me what music you listen to, and I’ll tell you who you are” was among the principles that served as a blueprint, starting-point and road-map for the look and feel of the campaign and for the subsequent implementation of Das Neue Kubitscheck (The New Kubitscheck).

Cafe owner, Armin Stegbauer’s aim is to free cakes and gateaux from their years of imprisonment behind the bars of crocheted doilies, cologne and dusty Sunday tradition. Stegbauer, saviour of Cafe Kubitscheck in Waldfriedhofstrasse, a traditional Munich confectioner’s from the 1950s, has made it his goal to revamp the confectioner’s tradition for the modern age. But not without taking on board some endearing aspects of Germany’s confectionery culture that are worthy of preservation.

Das Neue Kubitscheck, Munich, Germany, by designliga

Bush Form Sculpture by Harry Bertoia

The recent Important Design auction at Wright included this highly detailed and labor-intensive Bush series sculpture illustrating a mastery of welded metal sculpture by Harry Bertoia. Initially growing out of an exploration of natural forms using wire or brass-coated iron, the Bush forms became more refined throughout the 1960s. Executed in copper and bronze which garners a rich green patina over time, the Bush sculptures culminate in purified shapes that are defined by the undulating surfaces of metal points. Bertoia’s best works from this series display a scale and density of material that distinguish them in his oeuvre.

Untitled (monumental Bush form), by Harry Bertoia c. 1962, welded copper and bronze, Estimate: $300,000–500,000 (unsold), auction at Wright