June 2013
Transport &
Technology special
Strap yourself in for our
jet-propelled new issue.
Soft landing guaranteed
The W* House / Hall
'Stickbulb' floor lamps
Rux / Rux
From US$1,100
The inventive New York design studio Rux reimagined the lightbulb with its latest collection of sabre-like lights, encased in woods including maple and ipe, salvaged from the Coney Island boardwalk.
'Contrast' stool
BCXSY / BCXSY
Prototype
Eindhoven-based duo Boaz Cohen and Sayaka Yamamoto of BCXSY have used a variety of traditional crafts, from Japanese joinery to Israeli carpet weaving, as the basis for their previous collections. This year was no different as the pair headed to Cork to learn the methods of Irish boatbuilding. The result is this versatile 'Contrast' stool, assembled by clamping three sheets of plywood together.
'Portan' coat stand
MIXCV / MIXCV
From CHF1,411 (€1,174)
There's no underestimating the value of a good coat stand. This abstract, sculptural rendition, conceived by Swiss collective MIXCV, made up of specialist metalworking company MI and design studio XCV, not only holds its own in the transient space of the hallway, but also functions as well as it should. An elegant, poetic assemblage of lines with the simplicity of a paper clip, the coat stand is also available in purple, grey and green.
'Cut' mirror
Elisa Honkanen / Elisa Honkanen
Prototype
Elisa Honkanen is a Finnish designer who worked for Piero Lissoni in Milan and Patrick Norguet in Paris before going it alone in 2009. Mounted on an oak frame, her 'Cut' mirror features an unexpected additional sliver of bronze-tinted mirror that either gives extra light or stays mute and dark depending on how the room is lit.
'Apollo' console
Stéphane Parmentier / Ormond Editions
€7,700
We've kept an eye on Stéphane Parmentier and his new-industrial aesthetic ever since he made his furniture debut at Maison & Objet two years ago. Working once again with Geneva's Ormond Editions, the Frenchman has created a new collection, including this elegant console in perforated wood and soft leather, that is brimming with aviation references.
'Wunderkammer'
Joe Doucet / Fritz Hansen
$10,000
The Wunderkammer may be a one-off, designed for Fritz Hansen for Kin Coda - an exhibition of keepsake boxes - but we would be very happy to find a home for it in our hallway nonetheless. Each box designed for the project is a sculptural assemblage of found, recycled and surplus materials, with room for storing around 40 'mementos', or artworks, contributed by the We-Are-Familia group of artists. We can't help but notice it would be perfect place to put keys and hats, too, as well as being a nice spot for a sit down, ensuring we are calm, collected and properly shod before leaving the house.
'Branchline' bicycle rack
Quarterre / Quarterre
£900
Two wheels may be the best way to navigate a city but bikes are not the easiest of things to store. So we're thankful for the innovative solutions recently dreamed up by London group Quarterre, whose sculptural bike stands elevate our transports most delightfully.
Door handle
Aldo Bakker / Izé
price on application
In the great pantheon of home accessories, door handles often tend to be given shortshrift. Which is why we can't keep our hands off this brass beauty that Dutch designer Aldo Bakker designed for hardware specialists Izé. The angled lines of the lever is almost mercurial in the way it flows out of the door before flaring into a comfortable ergnomic shape that folds naturally into the contours of a palm. At this year's Salone del Mobile (see W*146), we picked Bakker, the son of Droog founder Gijs Bakker, as one to watch -- a choice we feel is vindicated by the minimalist discipline of this door handle.
'Piania' table lamp
Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec / Flos
price on application
This bijoux table lamp is easily one of the most enigmatic pieces designed by the prolific Bouroullec brothers. The asymmetrical hood and base creates a squat profile that brings to mind a futuristic street lamp but when lit, it acquires a monolithic architectural quality. Whichever your perspective, it draws attention for all the right reasons. Very handily, the base -- which comes in plastic, oak wood or basalt -- doubles as a valet tray useful for keys, coins and other pocket detritus.
Paper frame shelves
Ontwerpduo / Vij5
price on request
There's already plenty to admire about these compact shelves with their industrial quality that comes courtesy of the rectangular strips of back mounting. The varied volumes of the frames make it easy to create artful combinations on any wall, not least as distinctive display units for your most precious tchotchkes. But we're particularly impressed by the fact that the timber frames are actually NewspaperWood, a renewable and incredibly tough material made from compressed newspaper. In their raw state, the paper layers appear like extremely realistic wood grain, but designers Ontwerpduo have covered the pieces with coloured paper to resemble tree bark. No possibility of barking up the wrong tree here.
'Spin' coat stand
Studio Taschide / Schönbuch
£450
Grand entrances can often make all the wrong impressions, but with the right prop, such as this sinewy coat stand, it's bound to have everyone talking, but in a good way. Slender steel tubes, in white, granite or coral, curve in a continuous loop into sturdy cross bars for coats, scarves and assorted sartorial accessories with an umbrella stand slotted neatly between. A small tray for keys and the like slips over a waist-high cross bar. The stand can just as easily be moved out of the hallway -- with a few adjustments, it compressed to fit a smaller room. The only thing Spin doesn't do is show you how to make an equally dramatic exit.
'Peg’ coat stand
Tom Dixon / Tom Dixon
The problem with beautiful hooks is that you never want to hang anything on them. Like the very best butler, however, this graphic coat tree will hold its own while holding your coat as well. Also available in white, black and natural oak, the design is one of the better branches of Tom Dixon’s latest collection, and we’re very happy for it to take a supporting role in our hallway.
‘Down side up’ cabinet
Sam Baron / Fabrica
Price on request
Creative reuse is a big and important idea and Sam Baron and his Fabrica team are big on big ideas. From this cabinet to a desk and a clock, every item in their latest collection was made using four variously shaped and sized wooden boxes with holes in them. Baron and co simply attached legs and handles.
Glacier Hallway collection
Jarl Fernaeus /
€5000
Beckmans graduate Jarl Fernaeus was a finalist of the Prix Emile Hermes with this brilliant table, light and stool ensemble, made from ash and Corian. Though seemingly just a clean and pure set of furniture, the table is actually a very clever gadget too. Built into the underneath are a series of sockets, meaning chargers for any and every gadget you might own are seamlessly concealed in the design, with just the end that you attach to your phone, camera or iPod on show. One cable emerges from the table leg to power up everything else.
Table, bench, chair
Sam Hecht / Established & Sons
£850
The next best place for inspirational ideas, after the shower, is apparently the commute. Sam Hecht clearly favours the latter, taking the interior of the Yamonote line on Tokyo’s Metro as inspiration for his standout seating range for Established & Sons. While most Japanese trains have standard benches and armrests, the Yamonote line has a bench with a lone gold seat in the middle. Interested in the way people reacted to the space, Hecht applied his characteristic, minimal elegance punctuating a solid oak base with Bentwood arms and legs. Definitely too good to be kept underground.
File shelving
Warm & Stolzenburg /
€1500 set of 10
Taking old-fashioned hanging files out of the drawer and arranging them dynamically on the wall is an idea that could filed under G for genius. This means you can file and search for your books or post without craning your neck. Better still the modular aluminium system can be added to for as far as your walls permit.
Unique mailboxes
Atelier 522 / Serafini
€349
If you don’t fancy ruining the line of your front door with a traditional letterbox, it’s worth investing in one of Atelier 522’s freestanding mailboxes. The German creative collective designed these Bauhaus-inspired models a few years ago, which have recently gone into production with German company Serafini. Available in black, white or translucent (which also doubles up as a light), they’re big enough to hold a newspaper alongside your daily offering of junk mail and bills, keeping them off your doormat and out of sight.
Tiuku clocks
Ari Kanerva / Kokoomo
€370
The young Finnish designer Ari Kanerva has given the grandfather clock of yore a makeover with Tiuku (bell in Finnish), a standing clock that leans against the wall. Though streamlined in every possible way he’s still incorporated everyone's favourite bit from the original - a swinging pendulum.
Umbrella stand
Charlotte Talbot /
Prototype
Time was when a good umbrella stand was de rigeur in every hallway but you’d be hard pushed to dump your brolly in anything purpose built, let alone beautifully designed these days, and yet it rains more than ever. Step forward ECAL student Charlotte Talbot who showed a beautifully considered design for an umbrella stand at this year’s Salone. The circular oak holder is rooted to the floor with a single arm and held in place by a circular pool of concrete, which has a gentle dip in it to collect running water from your umbrella.
Woodpecker coat stand
Tommaso Nani & Noa Ikeuchi /
Prototype
This Italian-Japanese pair, Tommaso Nani and Noa Ikeuchi, cite abstract geometry and the dynamic relation of force and space as key components in their design strategy. That’s all very well but we’re seduced less by the lofty intention and more by the barely there practicality of their Woodpecker coat stand. The design couldn’t be simpler, consisting of a plexiglass tube and lime wood pegs, which can be inserted or removed according to how many guests you have. Come summer when coats and things to hang are in short supply, you can take it to pieces and store it away for a rainy day.
Storage system
TAF Arkitektkontor / NC Mobler
€800
The bare scaffold frame of this storage unit inspired us to clear space for it in our hallway. With pegs, shelves and a cupboard it has everything you want near the front door; hang your coat, empty your pockets and hide away your junk mail in one impressive entrance.
Moebel 41/02
Schubladen /
€3570
Franziska Wodicka designs sideboards and cabinets using rescued drawers. Describing herself as a curator rather than a designer, she mixes and matches found drawers from her hoard of over 800, constructing a wooden frame in which to house them.
Cork doorknobs
Jasper Morrison / Pamar
From €149
Cork isn't the most obvious material from which to hew a doorknob but it feels surprisingly good to grip. Jasper Morrison has created a range of cork knobs for historic Italian handle specialists Pamar with the precise intention of moving away from the company’s metal tradition. Morrison is of course no stranger to cork, following the success of his 2004 ‘Cork Family’ for Vitra, a range of doorknobs was a neat, if maybe unusual development in exploring the material’s properties. And the fact that it weathers and changes over time is part of its appeal.
Chankley Bore drawers
Maarten Baas / Established & Sons
Price on request
The hills of the Chankley Bore pepper Edward Lear's nonsense poetry and the wacky and whimsy looks of this work by Dutch designer Maarten Bass are just as lyrical. The hand-made drawers in composite materials (concrete and rubber) one of a range of characterful but functional furniture pieces designed by Baas for the British company. With intriguing mini-drawers, cupboards and must-press yellow buttons, this commission perfectly captures the energy and originality of non-British based designers now flocking to Established & Sons.
EUro lantern
Moooi studio / Moooi
from €336
The sun may rise in the East but it certainly sets in the West with this foldable, hightech version of the traditional Chinese lantern. This stylish prototype orb, here in luminous yellow, hints of a full moon and a skilful fusion of Oriental functionality and 60s aesthetics. The lantern comes in three sizes, 40 x 30, 80 x 70 and 120 x110 and in various colour combinations that include black/white, orange/white, printed/white in stretched fabric.
Brass key holder
Vincent van Duysen / When Objects Work
€485
As William Morris famously observed, you should ‘have nothing in your house which you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful'. This 'Primitives' collection by Belgian architect Vincent van Duysen fits the bill perfectly. He deliberately mixes primitive, tactile forms such as native blond woods and brass, and transforms them into simple yet powerful utilitarian objects. This finished brass ring, 26cm in diameter and 3cm high, is a natural space for your keys, coins or earings.
Riuku bench
Mika Tolvanen / E&Y
€180
Tokyo-based editor, developer, manufacturer and retailer E&Y doesn’t feel the need to scream and shout about its designs. An impressive stable of designers has been busy creating stunning pieces since it’s inception in 1993. And while they may have caught the eye of those in the know like MOMA New York, London Design Museum and the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris they have refreshingly stayed clear of the need for attention-seeking installations or come-look-at-me peculiar design/art creations. A highlight from their recent Greenland collection was this charming Riuku bench by Finnish designer Mika Tolvanen, which sits perfectly in a narrow hallway.
Rokumaru coat stand
Nendo / De Padova
€634
What you see is not what you get with this apparently simple, but technically complex coat rack by Nendo. It could conjure a tree with six branches or symbolise six radii of an imaginery circumference in which the product can be inscribed if seen from above. If that's too much information, you need only enjoy its clean, rigorous lines. Every detail of this solid rhomboid section coat rack with steel insert is minutely studied, from the inclination of its branches to the small notches at their ends upon which to hang your coat. In natural ash or wengé stain, coming in from the cold has never been so true.
Brass coat hooks
Jon Harrison /
From £15
RCA graduate Jon Harrison took it upon himself to give the traditional brass hook a bit of an overhaul, cutting and folding brass hooks in different angles from flat sheets of the metal. “On several there are slots encouraging the use of coat hangers, which tend to keep coats and jackets in better shape”, explains the young designer. Were proof needed as to the quality of the design, Ron Arad and Martino Gamper were first in line to order a set.
Ceci n'est pas une landscape
Gustaf Karlsson / Blyert Design
€170
Karlsson, a Stockholm-based trained architect pinpoints his love of minimalist architecture and raw materials as the starting point for his designs. 'I wanted to create a useful product out of concrete,' he explains, 'and seeing these archetypal house-shaped forms holding up books or doors is like having a piece of minimalist architecture inside your home.'
Orb hanger
Matti Klennel / David Design
€713
Slick design production with a visual twist is at the heart of Swedish manufacturer David Design. One of their recent highlights was the Orb hanger system by local Stockholm designer Matti Klenell. Available in red, white ir black powder-coated steel, as a freestanding hanger or single orbs, the molecular model is a surprising hit for the hallway.
About The W* House
We thought it only fair to throw open the doors to The W* House and share with you our wealth of experience in the design world. From cutlery to cupboards, pots to plumbing, The W* House features our favourite pieces of design from around the globe, room by room. We'll update them every time we find something new we like, building the collection into an archive for as long as the pieces are for sale. Practicality isn't often a buzzword at the Wallpaper* HQ, but when it comes to sharing our finds we wanted to keep things simple, letting you furnish your house the Wallpaper* way, with the click of a mouse.
