The COAT Chair by Fredrik Färg

The Fisso Table by Doimo Idea

Miesrolo Foldable Wood Chair

Domingos Tótora

Cactus bookcase by Compar

Bertoia does Barstools: Taking a Brief Look at the Origins of Modern Furniture Design

Much of what today is labeled as “modern” furniture is actually based on design and permutations of past designers. The idea of putting form, function, and materials over decorations has its root in Le Corbusier and the Bauhaus movement in the early part of the 20^th Century. But these ideas never really took form until the postwar period, when a group of likeminded artists came up with the concept of mass-producing these ideas, and modern design as we know it today was born.

This type of “retro” modern furniture is still widely available today in the collections of such design firms as Herman Miller and Knoll. The latter company in fact originally sold and still features today the famous Bertoia Stool Collection, originally created in 1950 by Harry Bertoia, the renowned Italian-American sculptor who was also one of the progenitors of modern design.

Bertoia’s seminal bar stool set provides an excellent example of emphasizing material and space. While he was skilled at all forms of sculpting, Bertoia’s greatest talent was in bending and forming industrial wire rods into functional designs. This is an art form that works particularly well with bar stools, and in Bertoia’s hands the effect creates an elongated, yet fluid shape.

But overall the idea behind these stools is more about the surroundings than of the furniture itself. As Bertoia once said, they should appear as if “they are mainly made of air, like a sculpture. Space passes right through them.” The idea is that the furniture is being created to compliment the environment rather than define it and that material and shape are the sole components of the design. This is why Bertoia’s bar stools are devoid of any ornamentation or curves, because this was seen as something that takes away form its surroundings by putting undue focus on the furniture. This is a concept that, although labeled “modern”, has a timeless appeal, one that still persists decades after its creation. 

Urano - Modern Minimalist Bed Design by Leonardo Dainelli

Easy Life Gadget Classic Reborn: The Pretzel Chair

With my deep and abiding love of all things mid-century modern, I’m not sure I could let the weekend go without mentioning The Pretzel Chair.

The Pretzel Chair is one of George Nelson’s classic designs. It is a lovely gracefully bent wood chair. The chairs were produced from 1952 to the 1980’s. To commemorate what would be the 100th birthday of Nelson, Vitra is producing a limited edition of 1,000 chairs.

Such a handsome chair certainly deserved a resurrection, even if for only a brief time.

Small Space Floating Furniture: Cantilever Style

While doing some of my regular trolling of sites, this weekend I stumbled on an image of the cantilevered desk (pictured above).

It is a really fine piece of furniture. I love how the use of built in furniture allows for what is really quite a large piece of furniture without feeling large. The floating volume of the piece allows the room to appear more open and less cluttered.

Built in furniture is not inexpensive and good cabinetmakers are quite rare. However, the added home value of built in furniture can make it well worth the investment. Just remember to keep built-ins classic and clean so what ever it is, it will never look dated. This piece is a great example.

Eastvold Custom Woodworks created the desk. Check out their site for more of beautiful designs.

Via Mid-Century Modernist

Small Space Apartment: Optibo

In May I had two posts about Sandy Lam’s Spaceless balcony furniture. It is a system of furniture that collapses into the space beneath it so that you can use the space for a variety of purposes. I was thinking that it reminded me of something I had seen before. When I did some digging, I found it.

Although not exactly the same Optibo is a similar concept. Optibo is the product of Swedish ingenuity I think it’s a bit like a Swiss Army Knife apartment. Although Optibo has been around for several years, I thought it would be relevant here.

Optibo was a research project on future housing and multifunction furniture. The furniture in the apartment lowers into the floor via hydraulic stage equipment. Yes its hydraulics for your couch, well not exactly. The project basically created a dwelling in a 25 square meter apartment. By concealing furniture in the floor it created a space that could transform itself thereby utilizing the space very efficiently.

As far as I can tell, they are not selling the concept yet, but it is a very noteworthy small space.