Outdoor furniture often goes overlooked and underappreciated.
Emu changes all that with the 2010 launch of its Intrecci collections, designed by architect Carlo Colombo.
With its upholstered appearance and geometric matrixes of wire in shiny white, the line is so striking that it almost moonlights as modern garden furniture when not in use.
www.emu.it
Check out Bottle Farm by environmentally-friendly Toronto designers Brothers Dressler.
The vertical planter is made of four upcycled plastic bottles positioned to a solid piece of discarded walnut by their threaded ends.
The planter is wall mounted using reclaimed hardware and can be custom ordered.
www.brothersdressler.com
Design is becoming evermore aware of its affect on the environment.
Reverse Design, design that is born from the waste materials of other manufactured products, embodies this concern, creating fascinating new ideas and aethetics.
Gitta Gschwendtner’s Off-Cut trunk and seat uses a variety of timber off-cuts, glued and miled into the appropriate forms, to create a random pattern of different wood colours and grains.
How beautifully benign!
www.gittagschwendtner.com
New York architecture firm Orba devised Red+Housing as a prototype relief shelter in the aftermath of the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan, China.
Made of bamboo, the cruciform structure is topped with a red fabric roof, making it visible to relief planes while adding to its light-hearted look.
The firm is fine-tuning the design so it can be erected absolutely anywhere on the planet!
www.obraarchitects.com
Inspired by the blowfish, LA-based Brit designer Alexander Purcell has created a cleverly designed ceramic pouring vessel with four matching cups that perch neatly on spines making it a funky tabletop accessory.
Hand-crafted using traditional kiln methods, the slip-cast cermaic helps the liquid keep its temperature, whether you are serving it hot or cold!
www.sakebombstore.com
What would normally be an ordinary, everyday item is now a beautiful object.
Designed by Lisa Vincitorio and manufactured by Alessi, this double-walled glass sugar castor is a vessel within a vessel.
Suspended mid-air, the sugar is filled from the base and poured from the top.
Do so stylishly.
www.makedesignedobjects.com
