Out of many design innovations shown during the Salone del Mobile 2011 in Milan, Synapse from LucePlan is my personal favorite! This modular room divider, that also produces ambient light, can be customized to fit any space. ‘The idea of Synapse came from the awareness of a significant change in the way people live today, – says the creator of the product, designer Francisco Gomez Paz, – Homes have become smaller and narrower, and people have decided to pull the walls down to create wider spaces. So, there is a well defined need for the lighter elements that would handle this new way of living.’ The Synapse divider is based on intelligent modules that can produce light, reflect the light, produced by other modules, and also transport electricity when connected to each other. Ingenious! The piece has another hidden function, that was discovered after it was made, – it reflects natural light from your window and turns it into an ambient one. Perfect for cramped spaces with not enough sunlight…
http://www.vimeo.com/22226838/
Here is another noteworthy Kickstarter project. Gypsy Modular is a customizable furniture line that folds flat and requires no screws or tools for its assembly. The product was inspired by lego, it allows you to create any item by isung the same set of building blocks. The only limit is your imagination (and space, of course). While initially envisioned as a solution for students, the furniture may fit into an adult interior as well. The kits come in a variety of colors you can mix and match. Clever stuff!
LED light is great, it is bright, long-lasting, energy efficient. It can also come in strips, which makes it perfect for various design projects. Designer Antoni Arola used these qualities of LED to create a line of luminous furniture, called BlancoWhile. He integrated light with shelves, bookcases, desks. The strips are hidden under the metal sheets and focused in the center to provide an even ambient illumination. The pieces are modular and can create multiple configurations, as big and bright as your space allows.
HT InteriorDesigningBlog
This storage system from Swedish company Zweed has it all. It is elegant, modular, functional and comes in a variety of colors. The line, called Citti, allows you to create your own shelving unit, as tall and wide as you like (or as your space allows). You can also design your item with or without doors and drawers for the compartments. Beautiful, clever piece. I want one for every room.
Source: TheDesignerPad
Recession Design is a group of creative individuals who explore DIY architecture and design solutions for low-cost living. Their project My Place was shown during the recent Design Week in Milan and included modular objects and Do-It-Yourself concepts. Here is how designers define their creative credo: ‘The idea behind Recession Design is very simple but opens an interesting debate on the meaning of “DESIGNING” today: The economic crisis is fact a pretext and opportunity for critical reflection on the contemporary design world.’ There is also a book in plans – ‘Do-It-Yourself Design, Ideas Against The Crisis.’ It doesn’t hit closer to home than this, does it?..
Via Serena Confalonieri
This is just lovely – a stop motion film by architect Guillermo Cameron Mac Lean from Argentina, in which he creates a Tetris bookshelf. The world is clearly not ready to let go of Tetris-inspired projects. And judging by this piece here – it is rather a good thing. If you want to get your own Tetris bookcase, it is available online at Brave Space Design.
Elements is the name if the modular DIY shelving system from the Parisian studio NOCC. The beauty of this concept is in its simplicity. These aluminium sheets are lazer-cut to be folded and assembled into a variety of shapes. In its disassembled state the Elements shelving takes very little space, which is not only comfortable for the user, but also makes for environmentally conscious manufacturing process and packaging. The product is currently displayed at the Nouvelle Vague exhibition, held at the Centre Culturel Français in Milan.
This modular furniture collection by designer Sanjin Halilovic can play several roles – from a shelving unit to a table, chair, even chaise-lounge. The set consists of four elements that are constructed of wooden plaques fixed together with drvofix adhesive and finished in acrylic mat paint. Rearranging them is easy, and by doing so one can build different objects. Don’t we just love when one pice of furniture doubles, triples (and in this case – quadruples) in function?
Versatility is a must when it comes to children’s furniture, and this clever item from Country Living fits the bill beautifully. These colorful benches, called Groowy, can be transformed into shelving. Stacked on top of each other, they create a bookcase, a free-standing room divider, as high or as low as your space allows. And if your child is having a play-date, and some extra sitting is needed, you can easily take the storage unit apart and transform it back into cool and child-friendly benches.
HT Babble
This cool modular design belongs to the Vilnius based studio Onetwo. The wooden stool, called Pinocchio, can be used as a free standing piece of furniture or as a building block for creating various sitting elements. You can build a bench, a sting of stools or just about any other configuration you like. The joining element really does make this stool look like the Collodi’s character, especially in its two-legged form.
