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Future Furniture

Of the 1,000 young designers who submitted their lunch-break dreams to our fifth annual juried competition, a handful are already in negotiations with manufacturers— now that's what we call forward thinking

Lauren LeBlanc -- Interior Design, 10/1/2005 12:00:00 AM

Tracey Sawyer and Jason Fischer

It sprang from the idea of a box spring: A spiral of welded stainless-steel wire defines the seat, footrest, and base of 32-inch-high Nought.1 [The Social Climber]. The bar stool's name? A reference to the void inside. contact@igloodesigngroup.com.

Scott Shim

For the Cross cushion, this Purdue University assistant professor drew on his research into the Asian tradition of sitting cross-legged. The flexible biomorphic 20-by-20-inch form, 6 inches high, is made of injection-molded polyurethane foam of varied densities—thereby distributing weight and pressure to the lower body in a way that's believed to improve blood circulation. ssshim@cla.purdue.edu.

Roger Westerman

Corocker challenges couch potatoes everywhere, demanding that a sitter's own legs function as the front legs of the chair. Held still by muscle power, the stainless-steel frame measures 36 inches in diameter. The ash-plywood seat can be upholstered in any fabric. roger@westermandesign.com.

Domenico Francesco Lio

For a truly hip Chinese restaurant, what could be better than a Fortune Cookie? Its stainless-steel base supports an integral back and seat elegantly molded in a dense bio-based polyurethane. dlio@msn.com.

Iduol Beny

Lollie Plates: Eating According to Your Appetite is the name of the game for this California designer's nine-piece stacking sets in porcelain or resin. They'd be ideal, she says, for a dinner party, "where all of your friends are as different as what they're eating off." info@benyglaser.com.

ArchLAB

From the minds of partners Steve Blatz and Antonio Pio Saracino comes a trio of forward-thinking products. The Folded Layer table's aluminum legs balance an undulating carbon-fiber top that, in turn, supports layers of wood veneer and glass. Moving from horizontal surfaces to vertical ones, the Adjustable Skin screen employs the high-torque hinges used on laptops to mount 6-by-8-inch fiberglass panels to a steel bracket, so the panels stay put wherever you angle them. Leftover panels get recycled as shades for Expanding Horizontal, a pendant fixture built around a translucent acrylic tube. The LEDs inside generate minimal heat—though we think the look is hot. info@archlabstudio.com.

Peter Franck and Kathleen Triem

Marrying craft and technology, this pair hand-carved the Genevieve chair from a single huge block of white oak. For mass production, though, the designers also worked up a plan to use 3-D CNC milling software to create the form. This one stands 28 inches high with a seat that's 28 inches wide and 24 inches deep. architecture@taconic.net.

Gary Cruce

With a polypropylene frame and a polyurethane seat and base, the Top stool actually relies on its bottom disk to prevent the user from tipping over. Heights vary from 24 to 27 and 30 inches—making this ideal for standing-height work situations or standing-room-only meetings. gary@crucestudio.com.

Parisa Manouchehri

Losing a student contest in Toronto prompted the Ghooch chair's designer to fine-tune it. This version reflects Egyptian thrones, her own Persian heritage, and training acquired at her alma mater, Ryerson University, which counts Interior Design Hall of Fame members George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg as alums. Stainless-steel legs lighten up the layered-plywood back and seat. parisam@sympatico.ca.

Adin Mumma, Brian Giraudi, Dave Burns, and Ilya Kononchuk

Collaborating with high schoolers on eco-smart products led these graduates from Philadelphia's University of the Arts to develop Comp-Press. They vacuum-molded newspaper-based pulp, similar to the material used in egg cartons, into a conical 16-inch-deep seat that can support 180 pounds. It's also compostable. ilyakononchuk@hotmail.com.

Marco Marcellini

Our only winning hardware entry comes from a native of Florence, Italy. Anime, Italian for souls, references a spirit within, as the curvy handle in nickel, chrome, or stainless steel reveals a colorful inset of rubber, enamel, acrylic, or wood. marcellini@mac.com.

Matt Thonen

L.P. is sure to have long-playing appeal. Powder-coated aluminum pins and brackets work together to hold a simple stained and polyurethaned beech-plywood seat and backrest in place. Color choices are practically limitless. mthonen@earthlink.net.

Paul Hibbard

Even in an Ikea world, Free Joints is easy to assemble and disassemble. Designed by recent Mancini Duffy hire—he graduated from Arizona State University this past spring—the chair combines three bent-poplar components and one of straight-cut Baltic birch plywood, all veneered in ash. Broken down, the pieces store and ship hassle-free in a box that measures 24 by 36 by 9 inches. me@paulhibbard.com.

Kristi Ramia

A student at Honolulu's Chaminade University dreamed up the wave form of the Swish Lounge chaise. Frosted-glass sheets 1/2 inch thick compose the 6-foot-long piece, and 2-inch-thick rubber bumpers protect it against wear and breaks.

David Martin

The Z Lamp is a science experiment. Heating nickel-plated steel to a semi-molten state gave the base its fluid line, while changing the resin shade's thickness produced varied shades of amber. The result? A glow as soft as candlelight. info@acmartin.com.