Igor Chak is a designer, and he likes retro games; this much is clear. Sadly, he only has one actual product for sale, and that’s the Space Invaders Couch we wrote about last year. But we’d really like to be able to buy the above set of Donkey Kong shelves.
The wall is made out of individual sections; each section is made out of durable but light carbon fiber, anodized aluminum pixels that are joined with strong stainless steel rods and toughened glass tops. The special mounts themselves are made out of steel and can support up to 60lbs
We like it a lot, but even if Igor does eventually decide to make this a product you can buy, we’d likely not be able to afford it: his Space Invaders Couch was $5,000!
Sure is pretty.
Hit the jump for a couple more pictures and links.
So… there was a design competition in Guangzhou, China, some time back and designers He Mu and Zhang Qian from Shanghai University of Engineering Science presented the above: The Sunflower Chair. The competition was called The Design for Sitting Gran Prix and this exhibit won the Redtory Design Award.
That’s pretty much all we know about this awesome piece of furniture. It doesn’t look like you can buy it, and that’s a shame because that’s one product made in China that we’d actually want (as opposed to simply accept for its lower cost).
This looks like a fantastic idea until you realize just how much it isn’t. It’s a sofa with an integrated set of tubes that form a Habitrail-like tunnel for your kitty to explore. It seems pretty clever, right? But then you think about it some more and realize a few things. First off, if your lovely pet has a vomiting accident while in there, what are you supposed to do? It doesn’t look like you can take any of it apart for cleaning. Also, if you own a cat, you’ll know that they have a tendency to ignore the fancy houses/beds/cots/anything expensive that you can buy them, and instead comfortably settle on a piece of IKEA cardboard you forgot to throw. So what’s going to happen with that couch? And then there’s that opening on the back, just behind where your neck/back of head would be, perfect for your kitty to come up from behind and bite on your ear in the middle of a movie. Perfect!
It’s made by designer Seungji Mun and doesn’t look like it’s for sale or even being commercially produced. We say: good. Keep your cat budget for food and water; pretty much the only things they’ll acknowledge.
It’s summer and you could be outside eating your BBQ foodstuffs like a regular schmoe, on a patio set with the weighted parasol and the plastic chairs. Or you could class it up a few notches while adding an element of challenge to the affair with the above Swing Table. Featuring a powder coated steel frame, the eight chairs hang on wires and will swing around like pendulums as you try to sit still and eat, probably causing you to knock into your immediate neighbours repeatedly. This sounds both fun and stupid simultaneously, which is known to be one of the best combinations of adjectives in relation to just about anything.
The Swing Table is a very respectable $7,790, which means we’ll be purchasing a total of none at all for our offices. Expect an 8 to 12 week waiting period.
The above (and below) lamps were supposed to be part of “London’s the Art Below exhibition on London Underground stations. Unfortunately they were banned by London Underground due to being offensive.” So now you can buy them. Created by artist Whatshisname, the lamps called ‘Good Boy’ and ‘Good Puppy’ are a small and large versions of dogs doing their business and have to be turned on or off by stepping, yes, right on the turds. Yeah, it’s classy and the pricetag is too: the larger ‘Good Boy’ lamp is $3,800 and ‘Good Puppy’ is $1,550 (freaking artists, eh?). They take one month to make and appear to be actual products you can put in your nice homes.
We live in a time where genuine human-to-human interaction is a dwindling activity. It still happens a lot, but just think about the amount of time you spend interacting with a digital device as opposed to an analog human. We shouldn’t complain of course, since we make a living out of documenting this particular trend. And we really want to like the Private Rocker, designed by Cranbrook Academy of Art student Kyle Fleet in collaboration with Herman Miller. It’s pretty, it’s made from wood, leather, and wool and will provide the person sitting in it with a quiet and relatively private space. And we can imagine situations where its presence could be genuinely needed in order to provide a haven to the human-interaction weary, like in a open office. But we just can’t shake the feeling that any kid of device that facilitates even more isolation isn’t really needed at the moment.
We realize we’re on the losing end of this argument. Privacy is still paramount. Our misgivings are probably just due to being your usual Internet forever alone types.
Back in January we mentioned the Octopus Throne, an impressive creation from Maximo Riera that would have made any dictator hellbent on world domination proud. It was an elegant fusion of an octopus and an ornate chair and we liked it a lot. Little did we know that it was but one in a series of such chairs, which Maximo is simply calling the Animal Chair Collection. The above is the Elephant Chair, and is crafted much like the other one, “from compressed foam with an internal steel frame. The final object is enveloped in fine leather, allowing all the detail to be refined. Although not as heavy as an actual elephant, the chair weighs 160 kg or 353 lbs.” There’s no price information on this one, but the Octopus Chair was allegedly $53,000 and change, so we expect this one to be around that as well.
Not everyone is fortunate to be born in a part of the world devoid of earthquakes. It’s estimated that a total of 300 million schoolchildren worldwide go to school in earthquake prone areas and they are inadequately protected in case the building they’re in collapses. See, in many places, the kids are told to take refuge under their desks if things start trembling, but most desks are very unsuited to provide any sort of effective protection. But the table you see above, designed by Arthur Brutter and Ido Bruno from Jerusalem’s Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design is a different beast. Engineered to withstand the impact of up to 1,000 kgs (or 1 ton) dropped on it from what appears to be 8 or 10 feet, the table can provide effective shelter to anyone hiding underneath. What’s more, if arranged in rows, multiple tables then create evacuation corridors that you can crawl through when things have quieted down. It’s even light enough that it can be carried by two kids, so it makes an ideal addition to any classroom.
The earthquake-ready desk will be featured in the 2012 Design Bonanza Bezalel exhibition in Milan from April 17 to April 22, and has been nominated for London Design Museum’s design of the year award. It’s more than just a concept design, though. The table is currently licensed by school furniture manufacturer A.D. Meraz Industries Ltd. for distribution in Israel.
According to Bruno, the team is working on further international manufacturing and distribution negotiations.
It’s around 2.5 times more expensive than current school desks, but its sturdiness also means it will likely outlast current designs by about the same factor.
