Furniture: The Latest Architecture and News

It's common sense: a good design is based on people and what they really need. As architects, are we deepening enough to give the correct answers to the requirements we face in each project?

Herman Miller is a great example of this understanding. Founded in 1905 by Dirk Jan De Pree, the American company produces equipment and furnishings for offices and housing, including a high level of research to understand the human body and the way we inhabit our daily spaces. These investigations, supported by usability testing and multidisciplinary work, results in a large number of furniture pieces and spatial designs that are now used by people around the world.

We had the opportunity to visit their headquarters in Zeeland, Michigan to understand how these studies have been carried out for several decades.

Shanghai/London-based firm Neri&Hu has published details of their “Unfolding Village” installation, set to take center stage at the Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair 2019. The exhibition, taking place in February, will see Neri&Hu depart from the traditional convention of furniture fairs, often purely focused on product design, and instead actively engage with pressing social issues unique to their base country of China.

Having recently studied the issue of disappearing villages and village cultures in China, the designers were alarmed by the impact of such a disappearance on community, family, and cultural roots. With many products centered on the ideas of nostalgia, dwelling, and “the individual’s relationship within a collective,” the firm created the “Unfolding Village” exhibition to capture the essence of traditional Chinese villages.

Zaha Hadid Design has released images of its latest collection set to be featured at the Maison et Objet 2019 in Paris later this month. The collection, embodying Zaha Hadid’s inventive process, features a Swirl bowl in crystal glass, and a monochromatic marble collection from the Cell range.

The Maison et Objet festival is described as the international authority for home décor, interior design, architecture, and lifestyle culture, with its bi-annual Paris trade fair taking place from January 18th to 22nd 2019.

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Evidence suggests that furniture was used as far back as the Neolithic period and daily life without it is unimaginable. So how has furniture changed through the ages? From the exclusive and luxury furniture of Ancient Egypt, to the functional and streamlined design of the Bauhaus – these animations created by Angie's List take you on a fascinating journey through the evolution of furniture design.

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A table and a bench. A coffee table and a mirror? Perhaps it’s a stool and a cutting board.  

This is not a furniture identity crisis, it’s Varia, a six-piece, mix-and-match furniture collection that can create over 25 pieces of furniture, saving money, space, and time. The creators, Jamie and Laura Kickstarted their project after Jamie found herself constantly moving from one place to another, and in need of versatile material instead of having old, unnecessary furniture pieces. With just a couple of lightweight metal frames and solid hardwood accessories, the collection is ideal for compact urban living and can be transformed into different furniture pieces in no time.

In brief, this is Varia, and it is pretty much anything you want it to be.

Varia's Kickstarter ends on August 31, support Jamie and Laura's project here.

For those with $145,000 hidden down the side of their sofa, Zaha Hadid Architects has designed and released Lapella Chair, continuing their “investigations in structure and fabrication-aware tectonics by reinterpreting the iconic 1963 lounge chair by Hans J. Wegner."

Created from Italian marble, Lapella retains the proportions, scale, and recline of the original chair while introducing “contemporary stone tooling and carbon fiber composites.” 

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Architects and designers are turning into their very own version of Midas, everything they touch turns into concrete. With products like concrete coffee machines, concrete garden gnomes, and even concrete jewelry, designers are finding remarkable ways of experimenting with the material, proving that concrete is a lot more than just a bulky, building component.

Los Angeles based architect-designer J.Byron-H, known for his playfulness with material and unexpected forms, have experimented with concrete and glass-fiber and created contemporary, light-weight pieces of furniture, inspired by skateboards and architectural brutalism.

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For all those Brickheads out there, interior designing has just reached another Lego-filled level. Created by an Italian team of designers, Stüda has made the dream of Lego compatible furniture a reality. Their modular furniture comes in an array of colors textured in studs that are capable of holding the infamous bricks and can be customized to your heart’s content.

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Indian design and fabrication studio, MuseLAB creates customized furniture and products. Their 2017 creations include to-scale miniature architectural wall hooks. These functional household items were inspired by the works of Oscar Niemeyer, Le Corbusier, Charles Correa, Michael Graves, and others.

Creator of London’s Design Museum and columnist for CNN, Stephen Bayley named Le Corbusier’s Pavillon de l’Esprit Nouveau as one of, “20 designs that defined the modern world.” Before Bayley lays out the list, he gives a brief history and several definitions of design; culminating to his conclusion that design gives life meaning. Bayley writes, “Le Corbusier declared that design is ‘intelligence made visible’. That’s certainly true, but intelligence can take many forms…” [1]

Ten third-year furniture design students from Finland's Lahti University of Applied Sciences - Institute of Design, created temporary living solutions using only plywood and corrugated cardboard. Low cost, quick and easy fabrication, with no tools necessary: Rehome is a solution for recent catastrophes, such as natural disasters and the ongoing refugee crisis, which leave many people displaced from their homes.

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The most recent Project by Okubo Studio is the Fulgar Chair, mixing traditional Mexican design with interactive technology and design to create a new piece of furniture with lights and personality. The Acapulco chair is emblematic of Mexican culture, which radically transforms not just its materials but its utility and environment.

Cornell University's College of Architecture, Art and Planning has unveiled a 12-piece versatile furniture series designed for the school's New York City space in Manhattan's financial district. Created by Hong Kong-based architecture office CL3 and interdisciplinary design studio Lim + Lu (founding partners of which are Cornell alumni), each piece has been inspired both by their New York context and intuitive operation by a global user.

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Dutch firm Mecanoo has partnered with furniture manufacturer Gispen to create a new collection of modular and customizable furniture geared specifically towards creating variable working and learning environments. HUBB has been designed to adapt to a range of working requirements and scenarios, seamlessly accommodating different collaborative activities and individual work preferences.

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