SINGAPORE (Feb 7): Little Mother Sofa is recreated; a celebrity envisions a cabin and a mysterious clock by Nendo is launched. Here are some of the biggest news in design this week.
House of Finn Juhl reissues a sofa
House of Finn Juhl is now manufacturing a sofa based on one created in 1945 by the renowned Danish architect and industrial designer for his house.
The newly-christened "Little Mother" sofa is one of the lesser-known furniture designs of Juhl, who is now renowned for being at the vanguard of the "Danish Design" movement of the 1940s and 1950s.
The Little Mother sofa was created a few years after the iconic Poet sofa, which was christened in 1950 when Danish illustrator Jørgen Mogensen had a poet philosophising from it in his popular The Poet and Little Mother cartoon.
Mogensen was actually inspired by a stylised prototype of the Little Mother sofa for his famous comic strip, with House of Finn Juhl noting that the cartoonist discovered Juhl's design in the house of the poet Frank Jaeger and his wife Kristen.
The couple was gifted the small sofa by Kristen's father and master joiner, Niels Vodder, who produced Juhl's furniture at the time.
Seventy years after its creation, House of Finn Juhl founders Ivan Hansen and Henrik Sørensen note that the Little Mother sofa is still "extremely relevant in a modern context," also adding only a few copies of the design were produced during Juhl's lifetime.
Although the Little Mother sofa was originally a two-seater, House of Finn Juhl has decided to produce an additional three-seater model "to [fit] modern needs."
As is custom with the Danish furniture producer, the Little Mother sofa is entirely made by hand using traditional joinery and upholstery techniques.
"The sofa presents itself as a seamless design with a slight and natural curvature towards the centre. The organic shape and tight upholstery nicely accentuate the sculptural expression of the sofa," the description for Little Mother reads, without mentioning the price of the piece of furniture.
Last May, House of Finn Juhl relaunched the Danish designer's iconic Grasshopper chair, which was notably deemed provocative when it debuted at a Copenhagen design fair in 1932.
Additional information about the newly-reissued "Little Mother" sofa can be found on House of Finn Juhl's official website at http://www.finnjuhl-copenhagen.dk/
Alright, alright, alright – an actor designs a cabin
Actor Matthew McConaughey has co-designed an eco-chalet that will be available for rent in the Australian wilderness.
Called “The Reserve", the cabin is a collaborative project between Kentucky bourbon whiskey brand Wild Turkey, for which McConaughey is the creative director, and Unyoked, which specialises in off-grid, wilderness retreats across Australia.
Located in Central Coast Hinterland, New South Wales, the aim of the project is to "get more Aussies out into the wild”.
The mobile cabin is powered by solar energy and comes equipped with a gas stove, bar fridge and outdoor fire pit. It sleeps two and rates start at A$293 (US$269) a night with a minimum two-night stay.
Proceeds will go towards the Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife, a parks and conservation group in Australia.
The mystery of time
The Japanese design studio has concluded 2019 with a fresh curiosity – a Cubic Clock that will delight fans of designer Oki Sato.
As it has often done in the past, Nendo has brought out a mysterious and seemingly simple design object. The latest curiosity has been christened the Cubic Clock. As the name suggests, it is a clock in the form of a cube, but that is not all. It is a cube that is balanced on one of its corners, which has been sliced off to ensure stability.
As for the two hands, they cross over each other 22 times a day, but at midday and midnight, when they are both aligned vertically, they complete the perfect form of a cube, As the design studio explains it is "as if time is reset after completing a twelve-hour cycle. The functionality of the clock is created by removing and cutting elements of the cube, rather than adding unnecessary parts and materials, resulting in a clock that reveals its true form, only twice in a day".
The brushed aluminium cube was presented at the Then Now Beyond exhibition/retail experience, which ended its run in January this year at the Malmaison by The Hour Glass store in Singapore, which has been organised to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Asian luxury watch retailer The Hour Glass.
The Nendo design studio has collaborated with several major brands including Cappellini, Moroso, Bisazza, Tod's, Louis Vuitton, Hermès and, more recently, Longchamp.
From Jan 30 to Feb 16, Nendo will be in Paris to exhibit an installation entitled Ame Nochi Hana, which means "rain flowers" in Japanese, at the Bon Marché departmental store in Paris.
