Archinect - News

An armchair for each month of the year: Architect Adorján Portik's unique furniture concept 'Halfway to the Infinite'

2024-08-01T20:51:00-04:00

Berlin-based architect and designer Adorján Portik has shared with us the first details of his new ‘Halfway to the Infinite’ furniture series, a set of twelve armchairs he will create for each month of the year.

The project, now about halfway completed, is targeted at students and fellow artists and seeks to stimulate a sense of discovery and creative inspiration in those who interact with it.

November. Image courtesy Adorjan Portik

November (detail). Image courtesy Adorjan Portik

Embedded within each chair emerges the naturalism that comes with each change of the seasons. November’s design evokes barren forests while, contrastingly, June’s is bedecked with a canvas ship’s sail meant to embody maritime activity and summer leisure.

July. Image courtesy Adorjan Portik

July (detail). Image courtesy Adorjan Portik

Architects will be particularly fond of the March chair, whose seat is a facsimile of an unrolled spool of plotter paper. Portik’s materials range from stainless steel wire mesh ...

In one of Hong Kong's fastest-changing districts, a community-driven installation marks the physical memory of past lives

2021-11-30T15:23:00-05:00

As part of an effort to enhance the quality of life for residents of Hong Kong’s North Point district, a new public art installation will provide an inspiring space for a reimagined kind of citizenry brought on by the neighborhood’s contemporary transformation and supported by the Hong Kong Arts Centre (HKAC).

Suzanne Li, Eric Chan, and Joyce Fok are the trio behind the installation. The Hong Kong-born designers represent O&O Studio and REhyphenation respectively and were selected along with five other designs to create projects as part of the museum’s Via North Point Festival.

Image © Studio Kevin Mak

Meant as a reflection on the public uses of the causeway, the installation Siu Kai Fong utilizes some of the communal furnishings best upon the neighborhood by its residents.

Stating that they were looking to include “pieces that have stories to tell,” the architects reached out to community members, schools, and local businesses for donations which eventually...

A&D Goes Carbon Neutral: Innovations in Supply and Manufacturing Chains

2020-09-17T16:25:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by Parade, the only online platform dedicated to tracking new product releases for the A&D industry

So the story goes, when Elon Musk’s SpaceX was faced with a $120,000 price tag for a rocket booster actuator, the famed visionary advised his engineer thusly: “That part is no more complicated than a garage door opener. Your budget is $5,000. Go make it work.” Some nine months later, the actuator was finalized at a price tag of $3,900, accelerating production of the rocket while similarly providing impetus to Musk’s objective of verticalizing his supply chain in order to enhance quality, decrease transportation costs, and reduce fossil fuel use.

Keilhauer products are designed for a long, useful life with replaceable components. Their End of Product Life documents may be used as guidance for those wishing to replace product components or dismantle and recycle products at home.

Though arguably the most famous, Musk certainly isn’t the only one bent on innova...

Architecture students from the Royal Danish Academy create a "Guide Book Of DIY Chairs"

2020-04-27T21:38:00-04:00

“We decided to treat the situation as an opportunity to reflect, unite and create together with a group of young talented architecture students, who were all crawling the walls due to lock-down and home isolation.” A-A Collective

At a time where the world is closing down and consumerism is on hold, A-A Collective completes a digital based workshop for 80 architecture students at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation - Institute of Architecture, Urbanism and Landscape.

Chair by Helene Engehagen

Students and teachers in home isolation around Europe, from a total of 5 different countries, completed the virtual workshop in one week. Students could only build with household work tools and materials available from their local builders merchant.

Chair by Elen Finstad

Due to current restrictions the workshop draws inspiration from the principles of Enzo Mari’s classical Autoprogettazione collection. The students were challenged not only to design a chair, but also to do a manual of their design, allowing other people to “copy” it.

The guidebook, containing a total of 63 different chair designs, can be downloaded for free here.

Quartz digs into the trillion-dollar global black market for fake “designer” chairs

2017-07-25T14:19:00-04:00

Labeled with nice-sounding terms like “reproduction,”replica,” or “homage,” many designer chairs in offices, hotel lobbies, airports, restaurants and even big furniture stores are actually unauthorized copies. And while a knock-off Eames or Barcelona chair might seem like a harmless, budget-friendly addition to your living room, these illegal knockoffs threaten the economy and the environment, and erode the very meaning of design.

For furniture designers, protecting intellectual property is challenging—IP laws for furniture in the US don’t protect function, so designers have to prove a unique element in their design to qualify for a patent. And even when a patent is obtained, its protections often do not apply in different regions—not very useful in a global marketplace. Companies who rip off classics benefit because they can skip the years-long product development phase and often have an easier time selling their versions because consumers are already familiar with the look.

The Eames took out a full page ad warning customers about fakes. The ad on the back cover of Arts and Architecture magazine instructed buyers to look for Herman Miller’s logo, the only authorized manufacturer of their chairs at the time.

To combat the spread of cheap knock-offs a five-year-old consortium of furniture manufacturers and design firms called BeOriginal Americas has been training US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) officers to ...

Win the Sumo Air inflatable lounger!

2016-08-26T12:13:00-04:00

From beach trips to music festivals to picnics, have easy access to comfort with the new Sumo Air Lounger. Thanks to our friends at Sumo Lounge, Archinect is giving away four Sumo Air loungers to our readers!

Read on for more and how to enter the giveaway.

Best known for their beanbag chairs, the Sumo Air lounger is light, portable, and doesn't require extra assembly equipment. Unfold the lounger, inflate it with air, and quickly seal it. (It's perfect to inflate in windy places like the beach, otherwise you might need some agility and a strong-enough breeze to do this part). Then sink into the Sumo Air, and relax.

Photos: Sumo Air.

Available in a variety of colors, the Sumo Air is made of top-quality waterproof 300 Grade Ripstop Nylon and comes in a carrying bag. Plus, it's equipped with a phone/tablet/magazine holder, a bottle/cup holder, bottle opener, and a tent peg to ground the lounger for firmness.

Archinect is giving away the Sumo Air in Black, Red, and Sky Blue.

TO ENTER THE GIVE...

Real architects design chairs

2014-08-11T13:07:00-04:00

Pretty much every architect in the alphabet has produced a chair, a miniature version of their particular aesthetic. [...] Buildings are all very well, but it seems you haven’t truly made it as an architect until you’ve given us something to sit on. [...] “Mentally, it’s a very good exercise, to go from [designing] a building to the smallest bit in a building,” [Alex Michaelis] says. “You go back to the detail of the human body."

Herman Miller Buys DWR for $154 Million. What Does That Mean for Chairs?

2014-07-21T12:41:00-04:00

Herman Miller, the manufacturer of classic midcentury designs, will buy the contemporary retailer Design Within Reach (DWR) for $154 million in a bid to establish itself as a “premier lifestyle brand.”

An Eames Chair Makeover for Charity

2012-03-19T19:14:00-04:00

Presented with an Eames molded plastic chair, 30 San Antonio based designers and architects transformed the modern icon into a canvas for art.

Furniture Designs for Museums and Libraries Are Available in Stores

2011-07-06T00:25:29-04:00

Chairs designed by architects for high-profile commissions increasingly are for sale in stores. They are often pricy, but the appeal is the chance to bring a slice of cutting-edge international design into your home.