Design Blog

Translated by Silvia — Surfing around the Internet yesterday looking for solutions for sustainable furnishings, we fell upon FLEXIBLE LOVE. We immediately liked the name and, indeed, it sums up in two words the philosophy which hides behind this project. It is, in fact, a fantastic example of social, ecological and philanthropic design that manages to mix concrete utility and love for the environment and for others.

It is born from a very simple but effective concept: a flexible chair that uses fully the structural properties of honeycomb, applied to the working of an accordion. An incredible result of extensibility, resistance and rigidity, considering that the material used is nothing more than… paper!

A myriad of used sheets of paper that are recuperated, recycled and reused in a completely new way by the new Taiwanese designer Chishen Chiu for an extendible chair that can also be compact and multiform to host anywhere from 1 to 16 people! A group of good friends, a soccer team, a school class…

Take a look at the 2 videos and the images you will find below and in the cut.

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Translated by Silvia — The Orange22 studio says yes and strikes again.Founded in the year 2000 by Dario Antonioni in Los Angeles, this Californian laboratory of creativity immediately gained itself some illustrious clients and recognition. Last year, it launched Botanist, a collection of indoor and outdoor furniture, the first of which is tainted pink with the “Pink Limited Edition” in favour of the battle against breast cancer (all images under the cut). The latest issue is “Blank Canvas”, a social design project in which 8 world famous designers were involved for the first edition, from Milton Glaser (the creator of the iconic logo “I heart NY”) to the omnipresent Karim Rashid, from Ives Behar (an idol of ours) to the Italian duo of Massimo and Lella Vignelli.

You will find the images of the Botanist collections and more information in the cut below.

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Jin-Hui Kim’s Space Book

Translated by Silvia — A fairy-tale inspired suggestion, with a touch of dreaminess that reminds us of the atmospheres in Michel Gondry’s “The art of dreaming”: Space Book, a huge human-sized 3D book! When looking through it, one is welcomed by inviting, entirely furnished environments.

Who knows if more will be made from more resisting materials, that will work the same way as three-dimensional books, off of designer Jin-Hui Kim’s concept. They could become an effective and poetic furnishing solution for improvised guests or even just to live with a touch of extra fantasy in our everyday domestic lives.

In the cut below you will find more pictures of the Space book and 3 beautiful videos dedicated to the fabulous world of pop-up books with an interview of Robert Sabuda, a real paper engineer, made by the Wall Street Journal.

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Translated by Silvia – After the preview held on February 7^th 2008 at the Secondome design gallery in Rome, the 300 Sudoku bookcases, numbered and signed, designed by Arch. Mario Bellini for Italian company Horm will be the protagonists of the official “Horm for Unicef” event that will be held on the evening of March 13^th at Milan’s Spazio Pontaccio. The audience will be able to buy the pieces of this special edition dedicated to solidarity for African children in Unicef’s “Schools for Africa” project and contribute in a personal way, even through the purchase of the pouch designed by the same Mario Bellini and made with the same materials as the bookcase, black and white wood, polished leather and a mirrored interior.