Anti Design

There is sometimes too much pressure to fill ones house with luxurious objects. Much opportunity lies in the makeshift to create a simple and unobtrusive comfort. The epitome of this approach I found in Juergen Bey's 'Linnenkasthuis' and also Michael Marriott's breathtaking 'Economy of Means' exhibition:

The Linnenkasthuis bed is a beauty made of blankets, a cupboard and a table which become a bed.

And Michael Marriott's tables are made from various found objects that had the potential to be used as 'legs' and with the top cut to fit the eventual gesture.

Rearranged reclaimed objects can either serve as a temporary substitute by adding on without permanent fixing or can be spliced together to reach a next level of the interim object (although the Bey bed and Marriott table are eternal objects of desire), like Martino Gamper's individually crafted pieces that encourage reassessment of the meaning and function of the chair.

You can buy Gamper's beautiful book '100 Chairs in 100 Days and its 100 Ways' via his website:

The ad hoc or make-shift is still found all across Cape Town in small local shops or markets, like these upside-down crates with cushions used as stools.

Very intriguing is the way elusive design group Airconditioned gives an ordinary conservative piece of furniture an unexpected twist by chopping it in half. Later the intervention is translated into permanent features in the "Karate Chop" range.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a piece of furniture that wasn't designed by humans but by animals? Swedish group Front have let rats, rabbits and snakes design wallpaper and vases for them.

PS: Have you ever seen a lamp with its light source immersed in fat? 'Slow Glow Lamp' by NEXT Architects for Droog, makes you speechless.