No childhood is complete without a rocking horse, and every good parent knows it. However, such item requires space and can pose a challenge if your place is tiny. Luckily, Danish designer Michael Knapp had thought of this. His RockingHorse collapses into the size of a standard folding chair. So, when the rocking fun is over, the piece can be hung on or leaned to a wall and save space. I also like the minimalist aesthetic of the RockingHorse. Made of thin wooden pieces, it looks simple and graphically stunning in both unfolded or collapsed forms.
Instead of letting your favorite, memorable or otherwise significant books gather dust in the back of your bookcase, why not show them off, creating a beautiful decorative arrangement? This was the idea behind Miriam Aust‘s bookshelf, which is built around the books you choose to display. ‘A quite arbitrary number of shelf boxes in different heights, cutting and turning round each, are forming this shelf. Every crate is oriented in its height and depth on a pair of books and forms an individual frame for it. Put into grooves, with an extended lid each, the books are forming small hinged storage spaces in the shelf,’ – explains the designer. With the growing popularity of electronic reading, books are pushed further and further into realm of purely aesthetic pleasures. And this beautiful and nostalgic project is a pleasure indeed.
St. Charles is the name of a lovely multifunctional item created by Spanish design studio håus and recently unveiled at Habitat Valencia trade show as part of a larger collection of eco-friendly multifunctional objects. This particular piece can serve as a stool, side table, night table or occasional table. It even has a slot for a lamp from the same line, which makes it even easier to adopt to its changing roles. St. Charled (as well as other håus items) is also demountable so it can be shipped flat, saving money and resources. Clean, uncomplicated, functional design, perfect for small apartments or dorms.
Shelved Cooking is a minimalist and energy efficient kitchen concept by French design trio Arnaud Le Cat, Esther Bacot, and Luther Quenum. The design is inspired by traditional Norwegian slow-cooking technique. This simple and elegant system sonsists of two cylinders (one small, one large) set into a workbench mounted on trestles, each containing an induction hotplate. A cooking pot is placed inside the cylinder and brought to a boil. The hotplates then get switched off, and the insulation flaps seal the cylinder (they are made from compressed layers of boiled wool, survival blanket and cork). After this stage, the food simply continues to simmer on its own. This method allows to save up to 75 percent of the energy needed for a similar dish to be cooked on a traditional stove. Shelved Cooking is a compact little item too. An energy-saving attractive cooking tool nearly the size of an ironing board? Sounds good to me.
