Serie Up 5. Art. Design. or Political Statement?

The Serie Up is a collection of different pieces of furniture including a sofa and chairs, I am interested in the serie Up5. A world famous design, designed my Gaetano Pesce in 1969, manufactured till this day by B&B Italia.

It may look huge, but if you would order the Up5, you would receive a tiny package compared to what it will become when you open it. The package is only 10% of the end result. When you do open it, you just let it be... It is made out of a self-inflating material, the fabric breathes like a skin, which also makes it extremely comfortable, cause it takes the shape of the body

The chair with ottaman, is full of meaning and symbolism. It is not just a visually interesting looking 'thing' which almost looks like a toy, no this piece has a message, a story it wants to tell. It is not hard to see that the Up 5 resembles a body of a woman, a very voluptuous women, and then it is not hard to imagine that the ball with the wire, who are attached to the 'body' is a chain with a weight, which captures the woman. She is a prisoner, a prisoner in her own body, a prisoner in her own society...

The piece communicates the issues of equal rights for women, feminism, the time it was made in (the 70's) and even our current situation. Its a timeless piece and I love it...

source: http://www.b&bitalia.com/

Embody Chair from Herman Miller

'Embody' Taskchair or Miracle?

Every design of modern office chairs claim to be the most ergonomic, but the design of Jeff Weber and Bill Stumpf: Embody, is the most ergonomic chair out there! It even won the ergonomic award in the 'office excellence' categotie.

'Embody' has a whole philosophy behind it and a lot of study. It claims to embody not only the body but also the mind... The idea is that the body can move so freely, that your mind is not occupied with thoughts of having to move in the chair, it releases all stress and therefore the mind is free to concentrate on the actual task that needs to be done. 'Embody' supports all the pressure points the body has with the chair, which increases maximum comfort. As you can see in the side view of the chair, the chair mimics the spine of the human body. The fabric used is not any fabric, its like a skin, it breathes in and out...

Shuramata's chair 'How High The Moon' floats visully, 'Embody' does not have this visual characteristic, but if I have to believe the users, when you sit on 'Embody' its like your flaoting on air.

The description given on the Herman Miller site, sounds very promising, almost like a fairy tale, a fairy tale which I want to believe and try out some day.

source: http://www.hermanmiller.co.uk/

Cross over side table

Is it a small chair? a tiny table? a storage? or a modular bookcase? The 'cross over side table' is all of it! By crossing it over as the name implies this versatile piece changes purpose. It is multifunctional and fun.

Children and adults can enjoy this fun piece, it is made out of polyethelyn, which makes it light, easy to move around and easy to keep clean... It comes in fun colors and it allows children to think about what they want to do and how the want to it. I think for this design to work you need to have several... so your child can use it as a tool for play... wow, another function!!

The design comes in various playfull colors and it even won the 'Design Award for Contemporary Furniture' in July 2009.

source: http://www.designicons.co.uk/

Ghost chair or Copy?

Philip Starck designed the Ghost chair, he was quite smart, he took an existing design with existing associations. Not just any associations, but those who connect to a king, the Sun King Louis XIV. Immediately the impact of a plastic chair changed instantly. The design of the chair and the history that it carries is directly connected with ROYALTY...

The chair comes in all kinds of fun colors, sunset orange, stroke yellow, smoke grey and even glossy black. One of the chairs characteristics is their transparency... it makes them weightless as if floating in air... but with the glossy black version this dissapears... I think the designer went a bit too far with making the latest versions of the Ghost Chair with barbie, bear and chinese checker prints...

I wonder how Louis XIV would think of these versions of his royal armchair, I dont think he would appreciate it...

What I appreciate, is that there alos is a kids version and its adorable...

source: http://www.thekingogdesign.com/

DILIM

WertelOberfell have designed the DILIM seating. The seatting consists of 8 modules, which can be placed in different ways, this makes the design very versatile and playfull!! I like the choice of colors the designers used, even though they are not my favorite, they match perfectly and strangely enougfh it gives the design a serious look yet playfull. The modules are made for office purposes and public places, e.g. library.

Lucky Love chair

This chair is designed by a Dutch designer Maarten Baptist, the chair has different characteristics from different cultures. The straightforward design and the craftmanship comes from the dutch, but we can also discover scandinavian influences (the use of the real massive wood) and even some japanese (the graphical shape of the heart). Its not a complicated design, but you can sense that it has been designed with love and eye for detail. Therefore it is elegant but simple...

source: http://www.contemporist.com/

Chool

Chool is a design by British designer James Lucas. He had the clever idea of inventing a stool that can become a chair, by just sitting on it! This makes it a multifunctional piece of furniture, unlike other chairs, the chool can be easiliy stored away under tables. If you choose to sit on a stool, there is a small button that locks the mechanism, overall I find it a smart design and I love the name!!!

source: http://www.contemporist.com/

Lost in Sofa

Anything can be inserted anywhere in the 'Lost in Sofa'. This chair was designed by an japanese architect: Daisuke Motogi. She had the best idea ever! Creating a chair out of soft cushion modules, which have enough space to be seperated. You will no longer need a side table if you add this chair to your interior... Your remotecontrol, your coffee, your bbok, insert them all in your sofa... WOW, absolutely love it... I do hope it is available in other colours, a bit more joyfull, this color makes me think of a hospital and a prison... hmmm

source: http://www.contemporist.com/ 6 nov

Spoon chair

There are so many materials already out there, waiting for a second chance. I support the designers who dare to use them and give them a whole new life.. The spoon chair is a good example, its made of Liana (vine) skin and painted steel frame. For the comfort you can order it with a nice (recycled) cushion and voila: an eco-friendly lounge chair. The possibilities are endless even with recycled materials and this is what I love about design.

New Motto: Be Eco Friendly!

Source: http://www.inmod.com/

The Rubber Stool

In our last lecture we saw some examples of (ancient) stools... Accidentally I came across a brand new version of a stool. When I red about the new japanese design, I discovered two things: first that rubber is also a natural material ( they mentioned rubber treeplanting) and that the stool is made in such a way that you can un-fold it and store it efficiently. This stool is made out of recycled rubber and the designers claim that its comfortable, due to the elasticity of the material. It all sounds nice, but I wouldn't want this in my living-room, would you?

Source: www.contemporist.com

New Japanese Furniture Design: the Kashiwado chair

I was searching on new Japanese Design and I came across this massive piece of wood (chair). I must say its not the most elegant or comfy chair I came across, but something about this chair kept my attention...

The chair is made by a Japanese designer, Isamu Kenmochi. The chair is made out of a 100% Japanese cedar wood and therefore weights about 80kg!!!!!!!!!!

Im not quite sure why I liked this chair, if I even like it, but Im sure that I find it interesting.

H.E.

(source: www.doobybrain.com)

"Miss Blanche"

Another creation of the Japanese designer, Shiro Kuramata, 'Miss Blanche'. They say he named it after an actress, but I think he is referring to someone else, maybe a special secret women in his life... Anyway Kuramata had a general interest in transparancy, which I like. In this chair he added plastic roses in his transparency, for me it means that the roses will never die and live in all eternity, as will the love he had for this special someone (miss blanche). I imagine that if you would sit on 'Miss Blanche' it would feel like sitting on air (with roses), almost like a dream... Speaking of dream, 'Miss Blanche' inspired me so much that I wrote a poem about her (asuming that the chair is female cause of the miss part....)