As part of Made in YCN, designer Merel Karhof set-up a wind knitting machine on the roof of 72 Rivington St. during the London Design Festival. As the machine churned away, knitted material was harvested and finished off as scarves. The finished product displays the date of creation and the time it took to knit.
Now that London Design Week is over, I can finally get to the business of posting again! One of the highlights of the show was a booth exhibiting the work of Alexander Becherer (aka Biserama). Biserama’s designer toys are made from individual plaster pieces, which the artist hand-paints and assembles into different characters. The bottom left picture shows some of the parts in lined up in his studio. The German designer will also be showcasing his work at this year’s Art Basel show in Miami.
The Dock is a new design venue which opened during the London Design Festival. Conceived by Tom Dixon, the space contains Dixon’s new showroom, plus several thousand sq. ft. for special events and other designers. The layout for Dixon’s showroom was done by Studio TooGood, who designed the building to look like the backstage of a theater. Perfect setting for Dixon’s industrial aesthetic – several new pieces were on display including his Offcut stools (above) made from factory scraps and these brightly colored enamel vessels.
As part of the London Design Festival Italian designer Martino Gamper constructed a chair arch at the Victoria & Albert Museum. The piece was commissioned by Wallpaper magazine and made with Ercol chairs, some of which Gamper hand-spray painted. The display is an ode to chair arches of the past, which were used in Victorian times to commemorate royal visits and special occasions.
Heath Nash presented some of his new lighting at the Pecha Kucha Night in Helsinki. The South African designer, who creates lamps from recycled plastic bottles, has been experimenting with new forms – utilizing the bottles’ natural shapes. Above are his colorful Bottleformball and Pod.
A few of our favorite lighting pieces on display at the Habitare Fair in Helsinki last week. The Kapy lamp, by Anna Mari-Vierikko, is intricately made from hand folded paper (top). Other highlights were the slightly tilted floor lamp by LND Design and the expandable Casa pendant by student Olga Sjoroos.
Got to tour the studio of Naoto Niidome, one of Finland’s up and coming young designers. I really liked the simple hanger system he developed to display his fashion designs (left). Also spotted the new ‘Naulikko’ coat rack by another emerging talent, Klaus Aalto, at the Habitare fair.
Walking around Helsinki, I stumbled across a pop-up shop for Punkalive, a furniture company based in Punkaharju, Finland. Their collection of chairs, tables and storage units are all crafted from wood collected within a hundred kilometers of their factory. The pieces are made from scraps of Kerto, a laminated spruce veneer manufactured by Finnforest.
After a week of moving…three flights and nine time zones later, I’ve made it to Helsinki. Design Week events start tomorrow here, so new posts to come!
