NOHO Design District: Uhuru - War Craft

Uhuru's War Craft Line is made from reclaimed wood taken from the deck of the decommissioned USS North Carolina.

It is to date one of the most decorated battleships in US naval history, was built at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in the 30's, and fought during WWII. By exploring and referencing the forms of the USS North Carolina, the pieces create a dialog between honoring those lost during the its various campaigns and exploring the inherently violent nature of modern war craft.

The Mark-8 Room Divider is shaped with the life-sized negative silhouette of the bullets that were fired from the USS North Carolina. It gives a sense of scale to the massive and destructive weapons on-board. The black bronze powder coating is offset with subtle brass screws and hinges. Flexible enough to be used as a room divider or mirror, this thoughtful piece aims to bring a palpable sense of scale to the viewer.





The 16/45 End Tables vary in size, each referencing the colossal diameter and caliber of the bullets that were onboard the USS North Carolina. The tapered shape of the table supports took subtle cues from the battleship itself. The lightness of the base is a direct contrast to the solid bullets. Crafted out of either teak or cold-rolled steel, the tables support black glass and are available in three heights.

NOHO Design District: McMasterpieces

The McMasterpieces exhibit was a lot of fun - it reminded me of a project we were given in architecture school - to take six random objects and to create something new from those objects. The designers invited to participate in the McMasterpieces exhibit were asked to use objects from the McMaster-Carr catalog to create new objects. I was most impressed with the objects that used the McMaster-Carr pieces in a totally new way, such as Bec Brittain's Chess Set, which is made up of nuts and bolts, and Karl Zahn's Oil Lamp, which ironically incorporates a fire hose nozzle.




Bec Brittain's Chess Set.




David Weeks' Pendant Light.




Henry Julier's Mesh Bowls, made from polypropylene plastic mesh with nylon snap shank rivets.



Alissia MT's Trivet, made of wood dowels and vegetable tanned leather cord.



Karl Zahn's Oil Lamp.



Timothy Lile's Clocks - even though in the spirit of the McMasterpieces exhibit, these aren't as innovative as the other objects (being that they are just modified clocks), I'm including them anyway, because as finished objects, I really liked them (love the graphic - it reminds me of the retro video game, Arkanoid)!

ICFF: Flux Chair

The Flux Chair was inspired by a folded paper sculpture, when Douwe Jacobs folded a simple cut-out from a single sheet of paper. It can be flat-packed for easy storage.

ICFF: Data Furniture

Data Furniture's fun Avanti lounging chair and ottoman, which can be ordered upholstered with a fabric foam, for comfort (just remove the sock monkeys!). I also loved the Otto bookcase, which is a highly flexible shelving system - it comes with 30 pre-drilled holes and six metal rods that allow you to create "bookends" wherever you want.

ICFF: Ply Project - Flex Chairs

Ply Project's Flex Chairs were among the more innovative furniture designs we came across at ICFF this year. The surface of the furniture is made up of a flexible membrane with a laminated plywood exterior, becoming more like fabric than wood. It mounts to the chair frame with embedded magnets, so if you need to move or store the chair, just detach the plywood surface and roll it up! So clever!

NOHO Design District: The Future Perfect

The Noho Design District had some great exhibitions this year, including this one at The Future Perfect. The show featured work by Lindsey Adelman, Gabriela Artigas, Matt Gagnon, Lara Knutson, Rich Brilliant Willing, Donna Wilson, and more.



My absolute favorite from the show was Lara Knutson's Reflective series - especially the pendant, which features an LED light that through an optical illusion look like a traditional incandescent lightbulb. The lampshade is made out of a reflective glass fabric that is made up of microscopic glass beads which magnify light 100 times. The effect is pretty amazing.




Lara used the same reflective material in a series of vases and jewelry, but it was hard to get photos that did the pieces justice.




Mark Moskovitz's Log Facecord Cabinet.



Loved the three-dimensional appearance of Sylvain Willenz's Slide Mirror.



Hang On, by Jade Barnes-Richardson for Normann Copenhagen. A coat rack made up of a jumble of coat hangers.




Rich Brilliant Willing's Timberly Hall Rack - made of solid ash or walnut, with two steel, three aluminum and three brass movable pegs.

ICFF: Graypants

Image courtesy of Graypants.com.

Graypants debuted the Slice Cafe + Dining Chairs at ICFF this year. Three chairs can be made from one sheet of plywood, and the only waste created is sawdust. The chair is finished with low-VOC coat that is a byproduct of cheese.

While I saw several products like this at ICFF, I appreciate that Graypants' commitment to sustainable production extends to their whole collection. For their Scrap light fixtures, they apparently hire homeless folks in Seattle to collect cardboard, which they then laser cut to create the light fixture.

ICFF: Bernhardt Design and The School at Columbia University - Tools at Schools

We went to ICFF and several of the surrounding design events over the weekend. I wasn't blown away by ICFF this year - it felt like a lot of the same old same old. That's not to say that there wasn't a lot of great design to be found at ICFF, and over the week we will be featuring what we consider to be the standout pieces from the show. This year I enjoyed the surrounding shows the most, especially those that were part of the Noho Design District, but more on that later.

My favorite project from ICFF was a collaboration between Bernhardt Design, aruliden, and The School at Columbia University - Tools at Schools, "an initiative to teach eighth graders the value of design as a problem-solving tool".

Forty-four eighth grade students were immersed in the entire design process, from research to ideation to 3D modeling and ultimately launch. What started as a simple effort to get involved in the community grew into a much larger realization that design has a role in the classroom. Their success was not only in their concepts, but in the awareness each student gained in the process. The result was a collaborative vision of today’s classroom – designed for kids by kids.

I realize that part of the appeal of this project is the fact that these kids were introduced to design and were made a part of the the design process, but I think that the end product is pretty great, too. The desks are beautiful and streamlined, with interchangeable components that allow the kids to transform their desks on an as-needed basis: white board, water colors, storage, science lab... Now that I'm looking through the pictures, I realize I didn't check to see if the desktop includes storage (a la traditional desks), but hopefully it does. The chair includes a rack for books and trapper keepers, etc.

The lockers are visually stimulating, with lots of clever storage, and with another white board for kids to personalize (maybe that will keep kids from defacing their lockers!). I loved the locker handles - the lock was integrated into the door knob.

Most of all, I love that these kids were consulted and brought into the design process, from the design concept to the fabrication. How can an introduction like that not be influential and educational? I wish that more schools had programs like this. For some great videos on the collaboration, check out the Tools at Schools website.

Benjamin Hubert - Maritime Timber Chair

One other gorgeous project by Benjamin Hubert - the Maritime timber chair, which was designed in collaboration with Casamania.

Inspired by traditional wooden shipbuilding techniques, Maritime is a solid timber range of chairs which are skinned internally with a formed plywood shell. The construction technique with the supports visible on the outside, allows for a distinctive design language that is in harmony with the material and production technique.