A thoughtful selection of the latest lifestyle and design news, plus the modular seating goes where you need it to
1. FAT Chair by Tom Dixon
The inspiration for Fat Work, Tom Dixon’s home office chair, came to him during the pandemic. Dissatisfied with the bland chairs he borrowed from the London HQ for his home office, he set about designing a seat that would fulfil his own expectations of comfort. The result is a pleasingly rounded and perfectly padded swivel chair without armrests, which features a spherical cushion seat and curved backrest balancing on a sleek metal frame.
“The new blurred landscape we now inhabit of hybrid work and pleasure demands furnishings that match our increasingly flexible and unpredictable lifestyles,” says Dixon, an award-winning designer who is known for pieces that have a recognisable sculptural quality and materiality. “Fat Work is a response to these recent adjustments where the home has been redefined as a place to work or learn,” he adds.
The plush chair, which is part of Dixon’s Fat collection, comes in more than 200 colour and fabric options. First shown during Milan Design Week in April, and then at Scandinavia’s popular 3daysofdesign in Copenhagen, it has arrived just in time, as workplaces increasingly reject an overly formal environment in favour of comfort and more inviting aesthetics. The swivel option makes it simple to turn to face colleagues while the thick upholstery and generously padded backrest offer plenty of support in all the right places.
2. Taburete 8 by HAY
Majorca-born industrial designer Marc Morro left the island to study in Barcelona and has called the city home ever since. His forte is functional carpentry work, and the young creative soon caught the eye of Rolf and Mette Hay, who invited him to collaborate on a sturdy bar stool. Morro’s first piece for their brand HAY is named after the Spanish word for stool, taburete, and ‘8’ after the number of prototypes it took to perfect it.
The resulting piece is robust and exudes a contemporary aesthetic that is characteristic of Morro’s direct approach to design. There is a raw simplicity to the components, from a steel tube frame to the curvy plywood seat. “I like the idea of making something out of very little: a balance between efficiency and good comfort,” says Morro. Colour is very much part of his design language, and the stool comes in four bold hues: Signal Red, Eggshell, Soft Jade and Black. “It’s a stool that comes with a statement. You see it and don’t forget it,” says Rolf Hay, who hopes to work with Morro on further releases.
3. Alder collection by Mater and Patricia Urquiola
Danish green-tech design brand Mater (Latin for ‘mother’) is constantly striving to push the boundaries of sustainability and circularity in furniture design and production. To that end, it has worked with renowned Spanish architect and designer Patricia Urquiola on the new Alder collection, which consists of oval and square lounge tables, a side table and a stool. Available in four earthy colours – Terracotta, Light Green, Sand and Earth Grey – the pieces are made from an innovative new material, Matek, which is a mix of coffee or wood waste and certified biodegradable plastic derived from sugarcane.
Those who enjoy furniture with an interesting back story may want to opt for the lightest shade, which reveals the fibres used to create the piece. What’s more, the collection is designed for disassembly, allowing each component to be upcycled into new production cycles through Mater’s Take-back System, and each part is fully decomposable. The stool and tables, handily suitable for indoor and outdoor use, have a soft, curvilinear form, which is meticulously shaped through press moulding, and a lovely ridge detail on the top.
“If you ask any designer today what materials they would like to work with – of course they’re biodegradable, because we know we must return our materials to the Earth,” says Urquiola. “I think we are now more focused on the right way to approach products, materials and processes, but there is so much more to do.”
4. Arcs Trolley by HAY
Designed by Belgian duo Fien Muller and Hannes Van Severen, the Arcs Trolley is a nifty piece of furniture that combines industrial craftsmanship with Hay’s trademark playfulness. Made from powder-coated steel, the trolley comes in an array of vibrant colours, such as jade green and auburn red, while its elegant, scalloped edging makes it a distinctive piece.
“For us, a good object is always technical and poetic at the same time,” say the designers, who share a passion for art, architecture and materials. “The curves in this object are not random, they have a function.” The trolley effortlessly adapts to its surroundings; with a choice of two or three tiers and slender legs on castors for ease of movement, it can serve as a display and storage solution in the living room, lend an extra layer of shelving in the kitchen or double as a cabinet in home offices or co-working spaces.
5. Aram at 60, Wassily armchair
Aram, the famed furniture store in London’s Covent Garden, is marking 60 years as a successful family-run design business this year. Launched by the late Zeev Aram in 1964 on the King’s Road, the shop was the first of its kind in the UK, showcasing international modern furniture and lighting. Aram is celebrating its anniversary by opening a new gallery space and introducing a special edition of the Wassily Chair by Marcel Breuer, the first design Zeev sold at the original Aram showroom. The Wassily Chair, which was one of Zeev’s favourite pieces, was first conceived in 1925 and soon became a classic of the Bauhaus movement.
“My father sold the chair in 1964 in black leather hide, which is the finish most Wassily chairs have been sold in,” explains Daniel Aram, who now runs the business. “However, Breuer originally created the Wassily using heavy-duty waxed cotton fabric, so we thought it was apt to use black canvas for this special edition, especially as it has not been used before.” Just 24 of the new chairs will be made by Knoll, and each will feature an ‘Aram 60 2024’ stamp to mark the occasion.
6. Puffa System by Kint
The Puffa System is a soft-furniture collection by designer Rostyslav Sorokovyi for Ukrainian brand kint. To date, it is kint’s most popular offering, popping up everywhere from homes to showrooms and restaurants. The collection consists of 16 upholstered modules of different lengths and heights that can be arranged to form sofas, armchairs, benches and poufs, with the possibility to make them deeper or wider as necessary.
Depending on the combinations of colour and texture chosen, the Puffa can look cool and minimalist or fun and playful. “Object design in Ukraine is evolving rapidly, with many interesting and talented designers emerging,” says Max Voytenko, creative director of kint. “We aim to collaborate with them, produce their designs and showcase them on the world design stage.”
7. Social chair by Varier
Lifestyle changes, smaller urban homes and major shifts in the patterns of our working lives call for furniture that can help us happily work, play and socialise all in the same space. But these different activities naturally have different requirements. To cater to our changing demands, Snøhetta has designed the Social chair for Varier, a furniture company based in Oslo. Made from post-consumer recycled polypropylene, this playful chair comes with either a tilting or swivel base.
“While many designs concentrate on individual comfort or static ergonomics, the Social chair offers an active seating solution that promotes and supports shifting postures, facilitating social activity and a dynamic lifestyle,” explains Marius Myking, director of product design at Snøhetta. “Varier’s deep expertise in ergonomic design and our approach to creating spaces that shape social interactions resulted in a perfect synergy.”
8. Percy by NaughtOne
Canadian furniture designer Nicole Marion looked back at the simple and functional aesthetic of 1970s waiting rooms for NaughtOne’s new lounge chair, Percy. Initially developed as a self-initiated project, an early version was awarded Best Prototype at Toronto’s Interior Design Show in 2020. Bold and unfussy, the chair’s rounded steel frame snugly holds invitingly plump cushions.
There are no sharp edges here, and Marion was particularly keen to employ the metal tubing in a continuous path around most of the chair. “So many of these chairs seem to be Bauhaus-inspired, which is a movement that has always resonated with me,” she says. “Using clean lines and simplified forms to create striking yet functional products is always my objective, and this chair typology really aligns with that.”
Marion worked with UK designer and manufacturer NaughtOne to refine the prototype, adjusting the seating to a more relaxed angle and softening the cushions. Sustainability is important to both Marion and NaughtOne, so the chair’s internal frame is made from fast-growing Baltic birch and the steel tubing can be repaired or repainted if needed.
9. Soft collection by Molo Design
Vancouver-based studio Molo’s award-winning and innovative Soft collection, including ultra-flexible room partitions and modular blocks, is the perfect embodiment of its co-founders’ approach to materials and space making. The folding wall partitions, made of paper or textile, were developed by Stephanie Forsythe and Todd MacAllen to provide a flexible, sustainable alternative to traditional rigid dividers.
The smart, honeycomb design of the partitions allow them to flex and curve beautifully, while the soft material dampens and absorbs sound. Each section is bound together at the ends by wool felt covers, which fold to create handles. Both the wall partitions and blocks are modular, with elements that connect to magnetic end panels, making it simple to reshape entire environments.
10. Hulsø shelf by Finn Juhl
Finn Juhl was a pioneering Danish designer, whose organic shapes and artistic approach bridged the gap between art and functional design in the 20th century. Since 2001, the House of Finn Juhl has been manufacturing and relaunching the designer’s sculptural pieces.
It was during a review of Juhl’s extensive archive that the organically shaped Hulsø shelf, dating to 1949, was discovered as part of an unrealised interior project. A detailed technical drawing allowed the House of Finn Juhl to recreate the shelf 75 years after it was first designed.
Now brought to life in oil-treated solid oak or walnut, the softly undulating shelf is an artistic element in its own right that can be combined to create a cohesive form. It even features a specially designed wall bracket that allows for adjustment after mounting.
11. Omni by Form Us With Love
While Stockholm-based design studio Form Us With Love was thinking about its latest soft seating collection, it was also working on an explorative future-driven project with Samsung. “This gave us invaluable insights into how technology shapes life at home and, more specifically, how many screens we use on average,” say co-founders Jonas Pettersson and John Löfgren.
“It was clear to us that the traditional sofa did not meet today’s and future needs. The solution was to create a multi-functional experience catering to flexible seating and various behaviours.” To that end, the studio collaborated with South Korea’s Munito on Omni, a collection of soft seating that supports a range of postures, from upright sitting to relaxed reclining. The resulting seats are contemporary, shapely and smart, and would fit comfortably in both domestic and office interiors.
Images by Tom Dixon, Nicklas Hemming, Ollie Tomlinson, Anna Kagitina, NaughtOne, Alanna Paterson, Finn Juhl, Munito
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