Top 10 quirky furniture designs of 2020. THE CARWASH collection by Carlijn Olde Beverborg – Photo by Magdalena Wierzbicka.
Design – Our 2020 design round up features 10 quirky furniture designs we fell in love with this year for their down-to-earth, functional and/or human-based imprint.
- RELATED STORIES: check other 2020 architecture and design round ups
‘Dimmable’ measuring tapes from Milano Design Days
Courtesy of Martinelli Luce.
METRICA is a quite unconventional lighting design developed by Studio Habits for Martinelli Luce. It consists in a simple base from which you can extract a hidden measuring tape-like LED light source. The more you pull it the more intense is the light. Pushing it back inside, the brightness decreases until it switches off. Metrica was presented at Milano Design City, a small fall edition of Fuorisalone, the most influential world’s design festival which was canceled earlier this years due to Covid-19.
Rope chair from Stockholm Design Week
‘Rope Chair’ by Rowan and Erwan Bouroullec x Artek – Photos by Mikko Ryhanen, courtesy of Artek.
Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec have designed ROPE CHAIR for Finnish company ARTEK. “More like a silhouette than a solid block, the Rope Chair is a line drawing translated into three dimensions, a simple artistic gesture rendered in space.” Explain at ARTEK. When the sitter rises, the chair’s frame bears the traces of the body it last supported, the imprint of a user who co-defines its shape. Read more…
Fumbling ‘carwash’ poufs from Dutch Design Week
Photo by Magdalena Wierzbicka.
At Dutch Design Week 2020, Born from a fascination for mechanical creatures, the Carwash Collection by Dutch designer Carlijn Olde Beverborg consists in three dancing and fumbling furnitures with a cuddly mixture of soft layers and metal features inviting people to engage with mechanical cleaning rituals. The Machinic Mitter Tables linger around the house with a glass top and metal frame floating on thick layers of PET felt. The Brush Pouf spins around and inviting to pet its hair. Read more about Dutch Design Week…
Frugal chairs by working-class migrants from Dubai Design Week
Frugal chairs by UAE working class migrants collected by Christopher Benton.
At Dubai Design Week, artist Christopher Benton has collected frugal seats created by working-class migrants in the United Arab Emirates. The furnitures are made from found objects such as street signs, plastic cement paint buckets, emoji pillows and beaded car seats. Other designs focus on repairing broken seats through whatever materials are at hand at the time. All chairs have be returned to their owners. Read more about Dubai Design Week…
Knitted mix-and-match textile beings from 3 Days of Design
Knit Project: Benja Harney’s Conversation Series – Photo by Christopher Morris.
Surrealist eyes and lips adorn a tangled field of interlocking shapes in InterPersona, a playful landscape of abstracted characters designed by Sydney-based artist and paper engineer, Benja Harney. InterPersona comes to life in a vibrant field of forms that can be endlessly reconfigured. The designs were created for Kvadrat‘s KNIT! exhibition during the 3 Days of Design 2020 festival in Copenhagen. Read more about KNIT!
Musical instruments-inspired chair from London Design Festival
Courtesy of Lee Broom.
Lee Broom has presented his MAESTRO collection of chairs which were inspired by musical instruments. “Music plays a big part in everything I do from the design process to the final presentation; it continually informs and directs where I take my work.” Explains the British designer who presented the new designs with a surreal classic music concert during London Design Festival. Read more…
Designers take on Marjuana from DesignMiami/
Photo by Archipanic’s Miami correspondent Laura Nicole Newman.
At DesignMiami/, Ornamentum gallery presented UP IN SMOKE, the first collection of high end accessories for refined marjuana smokers. The precious pieces were created with functionality in mind whether to storage or just smoke. A small case was inspired by medieval boxes used to keep arsenic. Another case features two breasts-like mountains hiding a space for storage because historically women used keep different stashes of everything between their bosom. Read more…
Confessions of a bonsai… from the PLANT FEVER exhibition
Photo by Helene Steiner Florence and Microsoft research.
Design engineer Helene Steiner Florence developed Project Florence, the first plant-to-human interface through that allows your Bonsai to communicate with you… through the power of language research, biology, design, and engineering! Plants use electro-chemical signals to communicate their needs. “Project Florence is a speculative glimpse into our Future where both our Natural and Digital worlds could co-exist in harmony through enhanced communication.” Says the designer. The project was on show at the ‘Plant Fever’ exhibition. Find out more…
3D printed Brutalist furniture
Courtesy of the designers.
Thomas Musca of Cassius Castings and Duyi Han of Doesn’t Come Out joined forces to cast lightweight beton brut furniture combining brutalist aesthetics with computer programming. The furniture designs come with a morphed geometry of planes and voids. “The goal was to create things that are practical and useful without sacrificing beauty and sleekness.” Read more…
A Memphis Group tribute from Thailand
EBBA chair by KAOI and THINKK – Courtesy of KAOI.
Bangkok-based studios KAOI and THINKK have designed EBBA, a colourful leisure chairs which translate the distinctive graphic design of the Memphis Group into playful and customizable furniture. Each chair is composed of two armrests, a seat and a pillow which can be mixed and matched to create almost endless configurations. “We’ve tried to find the meeting point where that same bold energy still exist in a practical and comfortable seat”. Read more…
