We’re running a popup shop at the Wanted Design show this year. Lots of our classic interactive products, plus brand new pieces from Seletti, Metylos and Joe Doucet.
Come join us!
WHEN AND WHERE
May 17-20, 2013
The Tunnel
269 11th Avenue, New York, NY 10001
Map It
Tickets available here.
Next time someone asks you to put a cork in it, make it a cork tray instead. Appo Cork Trays are a great way to repurpose some of those empty wine and beverage bottles you’re forever throwing out. Slide an Appo into the neck to transform the vessel into an eye-catching centerpiece or serving tray for hors d’oeuvres (also known as appetizers and finger food). They also work well for creating nifty tabletop or shelf displays.
The tray is made from renewable and durable cork, a substance with the practical benefit of simultaneously resisting heat, moisture, and cold to a degree unmatched by most materials. A tray measures 18 inches (45.7 cm) in diameter. Designed by Carlo Trevisani.
Purchase here.
We admire designers who explore the universe of modular design, but we’re especially appreciate of those who come back to it again and again. After all, isn’t the idea of repetitive exploration a fundamental precept of modularity itself? Nendo’s Oki Sato certainly qualifies for our pantheon of Modular Masters for his past work, and has just checked in for another residency with his latest creation for Kartell. While you’ll have to wait till next year for his modular bookshelf design, you can pick up one of his Yuki Modular Screen Systems for Cappellini shown below in our very own store right now (mea culpa for the shameless plug). You can also read this interview conducted by the folks at Cool Hunting, reprinted here.
Arguably one of the most influential — and certainly one of the most prolific — contemporary design studios, Nendo is everywhere. From furniture collaborations to large scale architectural installations, the Japanese studio, led by celebrated designer and architect Oki Sato, is well on its way to becoming a household name. After a welcomed assault on Milan Design Week last year, Nendo returned with yet another fruitful showing across multiple platforms at this year’s Salone del Mobile. Standing alongside their recent modular bookshelf design for Kartell, we had the pleasure of catching up with Sato at the fair, who shed light on color, scale and time, and showed no signs of slowing down.
Where does the name Nendo come from?
Nendo means like Play-Doh, like that kids would play with. That’s exactly the way I want to work as a designer—to be flexible and changing like Play-Doh changes color, shapes, sizes, to have that flexibility in designing.
Kartell is known for their use of color and transparencies, whereas your work tends to be more monochromatic. How did this effect your collaboration?
I guess it’s part of our cultures. Let’s say for Italians, when one says red, Italian designers can see a lot of different reds. They have hundreds of colors of reds, but not just red. On the other hand, I think the Japanese, we perceive more tones of light and shadow. So that’s one of the reasons why I guess Japanese designers tend to like white and black—so we can play more with shadows and light. And that’s where we start working on finishes and forms as well. Usually we start working on white and black because it’s totally the contrary and we can see if it works or not, if it works on white and black it works for all colors.
It seems much of your work is inspired by a kind of “ah-ha” moment. Where do you see that in Cliff, with the modularity?
Mm-hm, yes, I think so. Not many shelves could be used in all directions. They snap into each other like a jigsaw puzzle. You can really play with and it can be combined in different ways, you can flip it in 90 degrees or 180. It’s a very simple idea, but every unit has I think four shelves—vertical shelves and horizontal shelves. And so when it’s vertical it’s used as like a bookend almost. It’s a very simple idea but I think it’s an idea that users can really play with.
Your studio recently created an installation for the Stockholm Furniture Fair, which was quite large. And here you have something so small, like Cliff. What scale do you prefer to work on?
I like working on small scales. The huge installation that I did in Stockholm, that started from a small idea—a single sheet of paper that is stretched open to create this transparent mountain. And then by duplicating those it created a big installation. I try to have my ideas be very small and try to maintain the big according to the project.
Last year during Salone del Mobile Nendo was everywhere and it seems like this year as well. Looking at all the projects your studio has done, how do you juggle it all? Are you involved with every single project?
Yes, yes. I work on all of the initial concepts. I meet all my clients. I do all my presentations and check all the prototypes and the construction sites as well. We are a team of 28 to 29 designers, but I check it all. Everything.
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So you never take a day off?
No, I don’t. And we’re working on about 220 different projects at the same time, all at once. So in the end I have to travel around the world almost every month. I start from the west side of the States, go to NY and then fly to Europe, and I stay there for about a week meeting with all the clients there. Then I go to the Asian countries to check on the interior sites. And then I come back to Japan for about two weeks and it just keeps on going like that. It’s really nice. It’s really exciting.
Stockholm Furniture Fair images courtesy of Nendo, studio image by Kartell, Yuki Screen by Cappellini, others by Graham Hiemstra.
Via Cool Hunting
The D*Table, by The D*Haus Company, is a concept for the mathematically minded design savant (you know who you are). D*House got the idea for the piece from the works of mathematician Henry Ernest Dudeney, who discovered that a square can be transformed into an equilateral triangle (and a lot of other polygons along the way) by segmenting it into four ‘hinged’ components.
Very interesting to be sure, but we’re hot on this table because of its flexibility. Not only can the four components swivel to assume any multiple forms when connected, the parts themselves are joined by removable hinges so they can be taken apart and used separately as well.
We’re equally appreciative of the way the table has been programmed in very practical ways. Various storage compartments occupy each segment – drawers, shelves, slots for books and magazines, even a recess for setting a plant on the table top. Nothing seems to be overlooked here.
Click on the image below or on this video to see D*Table go through its motions.
Flexible, multifunctional, and constantly changing, D*Table is mobile furniture that can be adapted to suit the fluxus of everyday life. Speaking of which, if you’d like to see this piece come to life, you’ll want to log onto the designers’ Kickstarter campaign to support it. And make sure to reserve a table of your own!
Via Shoebox Dwelling.
We have two talented designers of reconfigurable jewelry and apparel coming to our Brooklyn store this week to show and tell.
Roxi Suger, designer of thewrap, a transformable knit that morphs into just about anything you can image, will be modeling this fascinating piece of apparel.
Lisa Monahan, Boston architect and jewelry designer, will show off her Switch Gear line of interchangeable earrings and necklaces.
Store Location and Hours
141 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11201
(718) 360-9304
Map and Directions
Switch Gear Interchangeable Jewelry was created by Massachusetts architect and metalsmith Lisa Monahan. Lisa designed the collection so that users can make an array of different configurations from the pieces that come in each set. So many that after a while your friends will think you have a walk-in jewelry closet at home – only you’ll know that it all comes out of a travel case no bigger than the palm of your hand!
When we say it’s design-it-yourself, we meant it: no special expertise in jewelry design is needed to exercise your personal creativity. To make earrings simply take the pair of sterling silver leverback earrings from the case, then add, remove and re-arrange the interchangeable hoops and drops to fashion your creation. It’s pretty much the same operation to make matching necklaces. Pieces in each set are American made of sterling silver, anodized aluminum, colorful glass, and other eye-catching fun and often recycled materials.
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Switch Gear comes in four sets, each with its own assortment of ornaments and materials. The Teen Set is specially designed for youngsters ages 11 to 14, so mother and daughter can be a real pair!
It’s a wrap, people! Thewrap by Angelrox is a Brooklyn designed, reconfigurable knit that gives the term versatility new meaning. It’s a skirt, a dress, a tunic, a shawl, a vest, a kimono, a top – come to think of it, it’s all of them. Which means you could take a trip and just pack one thing. Okay, maybe a few more, but not that many more!
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Bucking the outsource trend rampant in the apparel industry, thewrap is crafted in the USA. Meanwhile, riding the eco-commerce trend, it’s made from bamboo and rayon, which are sustainable, biodegradable plant-based fibers made from trees. The knit is quite comfortable and smooth on the skin, and creates an elegant drape and flow. Just ask our mannequin.
Thewrap comes in one size that will fit just about everybody (and we mean every body), thanks to its very flexible material and clever shape.
Check out this video to see all the ways to wear thewrap, then make up a few of your own.
Planter Bricks is a new concept for a living wall, and it’s really growing on us. Two aspects of the bricks distinguish them from the conventional definitions of this traditional building unit. First, the bricks are 3D printed, meaning they are digitally manufactured from computer files. And second, they’re shaped to serve as containers for growing plants and vegetation when used to clad a building wall.
Created by Emerging Objects, a design and research subsidiary of Rael San Fratello Architects specializing in 3D printed objects for the built environment, Planter Bricks would be very difficult to create by hand or require expensive machinery to produce or reproduce. One reason is the variety of shapes that the bricks exhibit; many vary in size and shape, with differently sized cavities and diverse profiles. Arrayed randomly across an expanse of wall the irregularly distributed pockets of vegetation suggest the free and unpredictable character of organic growth itself.
During construction, the bricks can be assembled in a load bearing cavity wall, installed as a traditional masonry curtain wall on a steel or concrete frame, combined with traditional bricks in new walls, or retrofitted for existing walls. Indentations in the bricks accept water much like weep holes, while a network of drip irrigation lines built into the cavity of the masonry wall irrigate the plants, the water pumped up from below or gravity fed from a cistern or water collection device on the roof. Edible plants and fragrant herbs with shallow root systems such as rosemary can be harvested through openings in the wall.
Because the manufacturing process requires no dies or molds, products can be mass-customized rather than mass-produced, taking advantage of the flexibility and speed computer-aided manufacturing provides. It’s also an environmentally sensitive manufacturing method in leaving little or no waste behind.
Planter Bricks benefit the environment in other ways as well. The plants they contain buffer sound, help filter surrounding air, and mediate a building’s micro-climate through evapotranspiration and pollution conversion. We’re already feeling a bit better just writing about it!
Via Urban Gardens
In 1972, a Scandinavian designer named Peter Opsvik took it on himself to revolutionize the design of infant high chairs after watching his son’s struggles with table eating. The result was the Tripp Trapp Convertible High Chair.
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Opsvik’s thoughtful response to the challenges of early eating stages was to more fully engage the child with loved ones by making it possible to slide the chair right up to the table without an intervening tray. Presciently, he also designed the chair to accommodate growth by making its various parts adjustable, thus anticipating today’s cradle-to-college design philosophy and its associated environmentalism. (Just think: when your kids go to college they can take their Tripp Chairs with them!)
Winner of multiple awards, the Tripp Chair was the signature piece at MoMA’s 2012 exhibition “Century of the Child”. Check out their wonderful video.
Brazilian design company Bold announced this week Combine, an all-in-one picnic basket for transporting family-style meals. During the product’s presentation at Rio+Design, we were struck by the combination of sharp design, eco-consciousness and material innovation. Combine features Bambootube, a fibrous material made from bamboo and rice husks, and the design looks to the ubiquitous Indian dabbawala lunch tin. Cups, plates and bowls stack into a single column that is wrapped up and carried with a silicone net. Once you set up your spread, the silicone becomes a fashionable mat.
Set the 25-piece set on the table as you like it, or use just use certain items from the stack for smaller gatherings. With eleven brilliant colors to choose from, we imagine heads will turn at your next repast.
Images courtesy of Bold
Via Cool Hunting
MODULE R is a concept store focused on transformable art and design. We collect pieces from all over the world that are customizable, reconfigurable, expandable, stackable, interchangeable, interactive and modular. Our catalogue includes accessories, books, furniture, children’s playthings, cookware, jewelry, lighting, storage systems, space dividers, floor and wall coverings, and artwork. In bringing this collection together – and authoring this blog – we hope to promote flexible design as an ideal way of making things in an age that prizes personalization, multi-functionality, economy and experience.