Lightness of materials. Transparency. Translucency. Pureness of form. Be they strong, sculptural shapes or softer, more organic ones.
These are trends in contemporary design right now.
But gads more interesting is “the behavioral influences of design . . . how people respond to a product, how they use it, what they expect from it” and “how that is becoming a new and increasingly important dimension” of design, says industrial designer Jozeph Forakis.
A native New Yorker, Forakis has been living and working in Milan for the last 12 years, including three years as European design director for Motorola mobile communications. He came back to his hometown last week for the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (during which he had a special exhibition of his work — including lighting, furniture, Swatch watches and Motorola cell phones).
The most important trade show for contemporary home furnishings in the U.S., the four-day ICFF takes place every spring, just weeks after the vastly larger Salone Inter-nazionale del Mobile in Milan.
And as in Milan this year, there was a movement toward the sort of interaction design that Forakis was talking about — even in something as “low-tech or no-tech” as furniture, as he puts it. Taking their cue from the world of electronics, more and more designers are bent on creating not just beautiful chairs, rugs, lamps and tables, but also beautiful, interactive experiences for the human beings who are going to be living with these furnishings.
And so, we saw at ICFF products like a globe-shaped floor lamp with a gossamer skin that is meant not only to glow, but also to be touched.
And: handmade artful alpaca rugs that feel like cashmere.
And: a room-defining system for loft apartments that is based on the design of the pogo stick — and is about as playful to install.
And: Forakis’ kitchen timer, designed to communicate (non-verbally) with users from across the room and become a sort of kinetic sculpture.
“What a designer does is help write little sections of stories about people’s lives,” Forakis says. “You are not just developing objects in space. You are developing a behavior over time. They [products] are like little intelligent beings.”
Have a look at some of the most interesting beings we saw at ICFF this year, many of them wonderfully experienced.
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NuSisal floor tiles by InterfaceFLOR
“Sisal and seagrass are everywhere. It’s a staple these day,” says Chip DeGrace, vice president of marketing for InterfaceFLOR, a maker of carpet tiles for the home. “But it comes with some frustration.” Namely: Sisal, like any natural fiber, absorbs spills. That fact made it a perfect candidate for development into a modular format, according to DeGrace. Individual tiles can be picked up and rinsed in the sink — or replaced if the stain doesn’t move. Woven in Brazil, tiles are made of 100 percent sisal and come in two golden neutrals. Cost: $15.99 a tile at Abode, 1904 W. North Ave., 773-227-6400. Or online at www.interfaceflor.com; or by catalog, call 866-281-FLOR (866-281-3567).
The Frank Gehry Furniture Collection for Heller
The Heller company of New York — the only American company doing designer plastic furniture — showed off its new resin collection by the superarchitect Gehry, whom Chicagoans know as the guy who designed that strange/wonderful music pavilion made of great rolls of stainless steel at Millennium Park (set to open this summer). A similar sense of monumentality and sculpture — albeit on a much smaller scale — infuses these pieces of indoor/outdoor furniture. A sofa, bench and cube table are shown; an easy chair and coffee table/seating unit also are available. All pieces are made of the molded silver resin and will be available end of summer. Cost: $200 to $1, 200 through www.helleronline.com. Or call 212-685-4200.
PogoDen by Dave and Julie Scheu of UrbanWorkshop
After moving their design studio into a loft in downtown St. Louis several years ago, this husband-wife team (of architects/furniture designers) got to thinking “all this space needs definition. And you don’t want to put walls in, or why bother living [or working] in a loft?” Julie says. What they came up with is pogoHome, a collection of room-defining, furniture-on-poles — including this modern curio cabinet. The system works by compression and requires users simply to wedge the pole between the floor and ceiling. The pole then becomes a spine upon which to attach boxes or shelves or other parts of the system. The only tool required is a hex key, which is included. Other items in the collection include a pogoGarden, pogoCloset and pogoLounge (modern liquor cabinet). All are made-to-order in heights up to 14 feet and adjust 5 inches taller and shorter than the height specified. (Poles have steel feet that end in white rubber tips .) PogoDen costs $1,495 to $1,595 at www.hudsonhomeonline.com (search under products by UrbanWorkshop). Or call the Hudson Home showroom in Kansas City, Mo., 816-421-3629.
Narrative Collection side chair by Bryce and Kerry Moore of Context Furniture
Plywood turns into a noble material in the hands of this Michigan-based husband-wife design team who introduced a collection of seating and tables at ICFF (their first national show). Each of their designs starts as a simple outline, an essential “graphic icon,” explains Kerry, whose background, fittingly, is in graphic design. And then that icon gets highly crafted — in ordinary Baltic birch plywood. They tease a Modern elegance out of the material — and get it to look subtly striated — by exposing the edge grains (where the layers of plywood are glued together). And then they punch it up by incorporating a stripe of hardwood — walnut, maple or mahogany — into each piece of furniture. Cost: $1,200 for side chair at www.contextfurniture.com. Or call 248-544-0410.
Bloom! Flowerpots by Rob Slewe from Bloom! U.S.A.
By beefing up the size of the pots and inserting four LEDs into their double-walled construction, Dutch designer Slewe managed a surreal take on the everyday terra-cotta pot. They function as both outdoor lighting (you need to find an outlet) and actual containers for plants, if you like. Pots stand approximately 23 inches tall and are about 26 inches in diameter at the top. They come in eight colors, plus white. About $300; available in July. Call 866-75BLOOM (866-752-5666).
Mosaic rug by Rosemary Hallgarten
A trip to Peru 1 1/2 years ago changed Hallgarten’s life. For the last three years, the British-born, California-based textile designer has been hand-hooking her own modern rugs (along with her studio crew) out of New Zealand wool. But in Peru, “I came across alpaca and I came across some people making rugs in the alpaca. I just fell in love with it as a fiber. . . . It’s like cashmere,” says Hallgarten, who ditched her New Zealand wool routine and, at ICFF, unveiled her new hand-tufted and hand-knotted alpaca rugs, as well as hand-embroidered alpaca pillows and woven, long-haired alpaca throws. All are made by native craftspeople in Peru who interpret her modern designs. Mosaic, which is hand-tufted, measures 5 by 7 feet and costs about $2,800. Custom sizes are available. Call Hallgarten at 415-924-1009 or visit www.rosemaryhallgarten.com.
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Here is information about the furnishings shown on our cover:
TapeTimer by Jozeph Forakis for Kikkerland Design
“In addition to this jack-in-the-box surprise to it, it’s also highly functional in an intuitive way,” says Forakis, a native New Yorker who lives in and operates his design studio out of Milan. The surprise is that the tape counts minutes — not inches — as it slowly retreats into the aluminum cube, sounding a bell when time’s up. The intuitiveness: The vertical orientation allows users to see the device from across the room and know approximately how much time is left, just by glimpsing the length of the tape. The timer goes to 60 minutes; the cube measures about 23/4 inches across each face. It was shown at Wow!Design, a special exhibition that continues through June 12 at Felissimo Design House, an exhibition space in Midtown Manhattan dedicated to introducing designs and talent from around the world. The timer will be available end of summer at the Chicago Architecture Foundation Shop and Tour Center/Archicenter, 224 S. Michigan Ave., 312-922-3432, ext. 240.
Orly lounge chair by Patrick Norguet for Bernhardt Design
The young, hot French designer — who has done a significant amount of work on the fashion scene, including window displays for Louis Vuitton, stores for Marithe and Francois Girbaud and containers for Jean Paul Gaultier’s cosmetic line — clearly let that fashion influence flow in his new upholstered collection for Bernhardt Design, which is Norguet’s first collaboration with an American company. Orly is all about a tight, curvy shape (in a foam-over-springs construction) set on thin brushed-nickel legs. To really turn heads, the back and seat can be dressed in different fabric/leather. Cost: $1,300 (customer’s own material) through Bernhardt Design, 866-634-0191.
Sogni Nel Cassetto chest of drawers
by Guido & Francesca Zwicker at Qui New York
Perhaps the most poetic piece of furniture shown during ICFF was this chest titled “Dreams In A Drawer,” which is an Italian expression for a plan or dream yet to be realized. The Swiss-born Zwickers (a husband-wife design team) hunt up vintage and antique drawers in Naples, Italy, where they have lived for 30 years and where they maintain their studio. And then they encase those drawers — assembled into artful combinations — in a clear plexiglass case so the drawers appear to float. “We want to make furniture that is not only functional, but that also tells you a story — or maybe becomes a part of your story,” Francesca says. A six-drawer chest (measuring 51 inches tall, 271/2 inches wide and 213/4 deep) costs $5,670. Other sizes available through Qui (pronounced kwee, which means “here” in Italian). Qui is the retail showroom that the Zwickers opened in January in Manhattan at 601 W. 26th St., Suite 1507, New York. Or call 212-691-2240. Or visit zwickercollective.com.
Globe Floor Lamp by Jeanne Scandura of Float
The fact that it’s a lamp, notwithstanding, you just want to touch this glowing orb. It’s “skin” is a firm but soft fiberglass-reinforced resin. A Philadelphia-based architect, Scandura came up with the globe idea and the resin material after searching for a big floor light for a project and then trying to have one done in glass. The reinforced resin gave her a fixture that is sturdy enough to stand on the ground, kinetic enough to roll slightly, translucent so it glows and heat proof — so it can be touched when “on.” It takes one 100- to 150-watt dimmable incandescent bulb that is inserted easily into a hole on top. For visual interest, Scandura made the globe slightly off-circle (measuring 28 inches tall, 28 inches on one side, 32 inches on the other) so that it appears “the way the moon looks when it is just before full.” Cost: $1,900, by order at Sprout Home, 745 N. Damen Ave., 312-226-5950, or visit www.sprouthome.com.
