red dot: best of the best_2

Downtown Sofa
(red dot award: product design 2006)

Platform for living
Furniture is closely related to contemporary developments - it is an important part of people's everyday life. The new millennium is characterised by hectic global mobility and at the same time by its direct opposite: the search for the contemplative and an orientation towards older values such as those described by the French philosopher André Comte Sponville in his book "A Small Treatise on the Great Virtues". Downtown is a functional sofa that embodies these opposites in its design and, in doing so, explores and reconciles them. In response to the spirit of the times, the sofa has been designed with an almost sparkling functionality: self-explanatory and meant for an everyday life of vicissitude. The concept of this piece of furniture could be defined as "a platform for living" - it aims at being mobile and adaptive. A design that incorporates mobile and asymmetric backrests is the most important basis for the functionality of this sofa. It features two adjustable backrests and the lateral headrest, which can also be adjusted to five different positions, offer various possibilities for individual use. In only a few steps the sofa transforms into either a bed with a horizontal surface of 136 x 225cm, a chaise lounge, different settee variants for sitting or relaxing positions, or a sofa with a play area for children. The Downtown sofa offers highly individual living environments - with its exciting functionality it is an expression of global as well as private mobility.

Design :
Pascal Mourgue, Montreuil-Sous-Bois, France

Circle Sofa
(red dot award: product design 2006)

The geometry of the circle
The circle is a simple, elemental shape, and one instinctively attributes it with particular characteristics. It symbolises closed-ness and a feeling of security. Due to its geometric consistency, the circle moreover can provide reliable orientation within a room. Naturally we feel, so to speak, that a circle is round and that it strives again and again to complete its own form. The design of the Circle seating furniture plays with this fundamental shape of the circle and creates surprisingly new configurations by segmenting. The Circle sofa unit is made up of four parts, two of which make up a semicircle; all of which together create a round sculpture. The outline and contour looks highly sculptural and vigorous - and it is left open how one arranges these sofas in a room. Due to the "segmentation" of the circle, the sofas facilitate a great diversity of options and multifunctional solutions as well as interesting sculptural forms and lines. Due to this kind of design, the sofa also challenges the notion of seating itself: persons sitting on the sofa are virtually called upon to find their own position within these circular formations. While the slope of the back facilitates sitting in a comfortable upright position towards the ends, the middle part allows for leaning back in relaxation. Event though the contour may deceive one's perception: the height of the back seat remains constant. Moreover, interesting spatial seating formations can be created. Thus, a closed space consisting of four Circle sofa parts can be opened up for walking around. This arrangement creates its own space, allowing for seating in the inner circle. In the reverse case, there is also the possibility of sitting in the outer circle. The combination of convex and concave shapes results in flowing sculptures in the room.

Design :
UN Studio, Amsterdam, Netherlands (Ben van Berkel)

Chaise longue YIN YANG
(red dot award: product design 2007)

In natural harmony – design as a mediator
The study of ancient Chinese characters reveals that “yin” and “yang” were once used to indicate geographical locations. “Yin” referred to the colder northern side of a hill and “yang” referred to the warmer side facing south. Over the course of many centuries, yin and yang became symbols with multiple meanings denoting two opposing forces within a harmonious whole. How yin and yang can be reconciled to embody harmony is a key theme in Chinese philosophy. The design of the Chaise longue YIN YANG aims at uniting the dynamic opposites of ancient Chinese philosophy in a piece of furniture. YIN YANG has been conceived for outdoor use and its design succeeds in a harmonious interplay of colour and form. The chaise longue is made up of two elements which – when placed opposite each other – fuse to form a sculpture of an organic and almost flowing appearance. The elements feature integrated seating contours that provide space for one person each. Two persons can thus sit down facing each other or even lie down in a relaxing position. This chaise longue is thus also an expression of the contemporary lounge approach and implies a multifunctional “freedom of seating.” The Chaise longue YIN YANG is also intriguing for the material from which it is made. It features a special, industrially produced fibre that is soft, pleasing to the touch and robust enough for outdoor use, and which is then hand-woven together by master craftsmen on the Philippine island of Cebu to form this piece of furniture. The chaise longue reflects the harmony of yin and yang not only in its combination of bronze– and platinum-coloured fibres as well as the alternating convex and concave surfaces, its design thus also reconciles and combines two worlds – the world of industrial production and the world of high craftsmanship with a century-long tradition – into a harmonious sculpture for modern lifestyles.

Design:
Nicolas Thomkins

SKiN Sofa
(red dot award: product design 2008)

Presence of the immaterial – form and expression
“Design … is an expression of the capability of the human mind to step beyond,” wrote the design theorist George Nelson in 1957, referring to the manifold possibilities that reside in human thinking, and which, ideally, find their way into products. Thus interpreted, design is a process of thinking whereby the onlooker creates the form of a product just as much as the person who created it. The French architect, Jean Nouvel, is constantly on the search for new forms to give expression to his designs, sounding the limits and possibilities of innovative materials and technologies in his work as an architect and designer. With the SKiN sofa, a design with a strongly avant-garde appearance, he now intends to give shape to something that is “essential” – a new kind of comfort is to be achieved through leaving things out. The sofa concept emerged while planning for the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris and the solutions, developed especially for the architecture of that museum, have now been transferred in an interdisciplinary approach to a piece of furniture. The SKiN sofa consists of a supporting structure in tubular pretensioned steel that holds another structure, the cover in double leather. A distinctive feature is that this upholstery is supported only by self-modelling geometric incisions. The SKiN sofa thus looks as if modelled from one piece, and the seat area in particular seems to be floating. SKiN is surprisingly comfortable and the leather feels soft and delicate. Its form is recreated through the senses and in the imagination of the beholder – a presence that is disclosed as a tactical experience of the immaterial.

Design:
Jean Nouvel Design, Paris, France

Drift armchair
(red dot award: product design 2007)

Even by itself, the Drift armchair has an autonomous look to it; as a pair it conforms to its original idea. Placing the armchairs in a mirror-image arrangement results in what appears to be a small, private communication centre. In everyday life, this lively use produces a captivating contrast to the rather puristic appearance of the armchair, which combines interesting contradictions: the large, curved form of the backrest and the opulent volume of the seat cushion generate a suggestive moment of suspense. The chair rests on a rotatable base plate so that the user can turn comfortably towards his opposite number. The swinging backrest also serves as a generous armrest. The chair is available in two variants, each with a mirror-image shape, and in different fabrics and leather in many colours to choose from.

Design:
EOOS Design, Vienna, Austria

Crystal Sessel
(red dot award: product design 2005)

The Crystal chair is designed as a reminder of the origins of seating, with the objective to reinterpret the "dignity of a chair". Crystal is a structure with a high degree of functionality and formal strictness. Resting solid on the floor, the corpus seems to grow out of the base, opening itself in a welcoming manner. Strict on the outside, soft on the inside, gently sloping armrests provide support in the ergonomically well though-out upholstery. As a dinner, lounge or conference chair, it quite simply makes sitting a special experience.



Design:
EOOS Design, Vienna, Austria