In her latest book, Judith Gura, a specialist in the history of interiors and furnishings explains the important movements (Bauhaus, Postmodernism, High Tech, and Green Design), forms, and furnishings from the 1950s to the present. Design After Modernism captures the range of influences that have spurred new ideas in design and illustrates many of the most characteristic and most innovative objects in this diverse mix.

With the first decade of the twenty-first century behind us, it is time to reassess the concept of "modern," a term that dates to the Middle Ages, when it signified current or recent events. Not until the eighteenth century did it become a stylistic term; more recently it has generally referred to the aesthetic that evolved from the Bauhaus and flourished in the mid-twentieth century. Though proclaiming freedom from the limitations of style, it became as formulaic as most of its predecessors, as Modern architecture and furnishings conformed to prescribed specifications: geometric forms, industrially fabricated, unadorned, and studiously ahistorical. 

Curiosity Kitchen, Alexander Pelikan (Netherlands) 2010
Annie, Reestore (United Kingdom) 2001 Repurposed shopping cart

Those guidelines are no longer relevant. As Midcentury Modernism has receded into history, Modernism has been redefined, reenergized, and in the process transformed. Today it embraces a cornucopia of design in an almost limitless range of materials: design studios are laboratories for experimentation; design concepts can be as important as finished objects; and furniture has crossed barriers to become a new art form. Tools and technologies never before possible have provided new approaches to decoration, and may incorporate influences from the past. The design profession has broadened its horizons; interiors and furniture are being created by architects, interior designers, furniture makers, industrial designers, artisans, artists, and even fashion designers.

Nomos Dining Table, Norman Foster (United Kingdom) 1989
Lounge Chair, Fabio Lenci (Italy) 1970

Design After Modernism offers an overview of developments in design over the past four decades-some evolutionary, some expected, and some extraordinary. It identifies the diverse influences that have generated new directions in design and illustrates many of the most characteristic, most noteworthy, and most innovative objects in this rich and variegated mix. All are representative of their time, and many of the earlier designs have already gained iconic status. Of the more recent ones, whether or not they will be admired in decades to come is something that only time will tell.

Hanging Lamp, Model SP1, Verner Panton (Denmark) 1969
Sushi III Chair, Fernando and Humberto Campana (Brazil) 2002

Book: Design After Modernism: Furniture and Interiors 1970-2010
Author : Judith Gura
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

The City of Charleroi (Belgium), initiated "Label Charleroi" an encounter between companies from the city and Belgian designers.

So far, six collaborations were successful and the result is shown in an exhibition called « Quand Charleroi pointe la technique » hosted by the Museum of Glass on the site of a former coal mine "Le Bois du Cazier".

Caterpillar, the well-known construction company for civil engineering machines, applied its techniques of cutting and bending metal to build a very versatile lamp designed by Sylvain Busine + ADA.
This lamp can be placed in a multitude of positions that allow it to be used as a desk lamp, a table lamp, an ambiant lamp, or even a book-end lamp. It can also be hung on the wall to free the space of a desk or become a bed side table lamp, small shelf, etc.. The wooden lighting module clings to any edge of the lamp with two small but very strong magnets.

Following the inspiration of designer Damien Gernay, Plastiservice, a company working with plastics, has crushed and melted vinyl records to create a new material to be manufactured as a vase for the occasion.

During its collaboration with Trans'Form, a work training company specialised in the repair of appliances, ADA (Atelier Design Addict) focused on residual waste materials and turned them into useful objects. The lamps are build from washing machine and dishwasher parts. The candleholders are made from different types of gas burners.

Amazed by the possibility to "print" transparent 3D objects, Raphaël Charles, product designer, designed a bonbonniere that Sirris, an accredited collective center in thechnological industry, achieved through the stereolithography technique.

GVK, a company in the steel sector, and Atelier Blink, an interior and product design office, focused on the development of steel production in different countries in 1910, 1960 and 2010. They present the results of their research as a "three-dimensional mapping."

A chocolate bar in the shape of a tire called "Royal United" is the result of the meeting between the technical work of ceramist Hugo Meert and Belgian chocolate factory Bruyerre.

Exhibition: Label Charleroi
From October 1 to November 27 2011
Musée du Verre - Site du Bois du Cazier - Marcinelle - Belgium

The Bouroullec brothers have presented some great new products in Milan this year.

Osso chair - Mattiazzi © studio Bouroullec
Working with Mattiazzi is comparable to working with an organic farm. While being a small, family-owned company that has been manufacturing chairs for others since about forty years, Mattiazzi decided to do less yet better. By using sophisticated CNC set of tools and at the same time a greatly refined manual know-how, Mattiazzi has a hybrid way to consider furniture production. We were particularly interested by the fact that all the equipment is powered by solar energy and that the wood is coming from the surrounding areas to be carefully selected without the use of any chemical treatments. They came back to the basics and this is precisely what piqued our interest and our fascination for the Mattiazzi family's endeavour. As designers, we feel involved in supporting such valiant microstructures that are always on the edge as they try to adjust to a constantly changing market. That said, the Osso chair had to be the illustration of what Mattiazzi is in its roots. We designed an object in plain wood but not in regular plain wood, the quality of the wood literally makes the object, like the best piece of meat would make the refinement of a dish. Our intention was to let the sensuality of the wood material - from oak to maple to ash - express itself. The Osso chair invites to be touched, even caressed as it is extremely sculpted and polished thanks to the use of highly sophisticated digital control equipment. The high-tech assembling system of geometrical wood panels allows a quite singular strength while preserving a design balance of the object.


Piani Lamp - Flos © flos
The Piani collection is made of a flat base and a flat top. The base is either a tray so that objects can be displayed in a triangular beam of light as if they were on stage or in its longer version, a shelve so that more objects can be supported by this hybrid design. Piani comes in plastic as well as in oak wood and basalt stone in the shelving versions so that different sensual experiences are suggested.


Aim Lamp - Flos © flos
The general idea behind the Aim design is to propose a lamp that would offer an infinite variety of adjustments to meet one's lighting needs. We came up with a proposal of a new typology of lamp that naturally positions itself in the space - like a plant would do - thanks to the long cables which facilitate the orientation and the height of the light freely. This object in ABS is the industrial version of the Lianes that we presented at the kreo Gallery, Paris in 2010.


Baguettes chair - Magis © studio Bouroullec
With Baguettes, our intention was to design a chair that would be brought down to its minimum, using the least quantity of material and assembling items. The ply wood seat and back parts of the chair are supported by four very thin sticks in solid wood which are maintained together by a structure in injected aluminium that is almost invisible. The back of the chair, like the blade of a knife, subtly comes into the main frame while guaranteeing high support resistance. As the Baguette table that we designed for Magis in 2010, we wanted this chair to be as light as possible, to almost float in the space as if it would stay on its feet by magic.


Oiseau - Vitra © studio Bouroullec

"Nouvelle vague, the new French domestic landscape" is an exhibition with A+A Cooren, Ionna Vautrin, Pierre Favresse, Studio Nocc and Pool at the Milan Design Furniture Fair 'off'.

"Entitled Petite Friture, Moustache, Superette, Specimen and Goodbye Edison. Punchy and easy to remember names chosen to stand out from the plethora of new French furniture and objects producers. France has never known such an entrepreneurial frenzy in the design world. In barely three years, the French design market has seen more producers emerge, but also design galleries (YMER & MALTA, Next Level Galerie, Fat Galerie, Galerie BSL, Galerie Gosserez, etc...) than over the last ten years.

'Rush' Chair by Studio Nocc     -     'Hippo' Lamp by A+A Cooren (Vertigo Bird, 2011)

'Rush' is a chair that is entirely covered with straw using a traditional rushing technique. This technique, strongly associated in popular culture with traditional peasant furniture, is used here to trigger the memory of the childhood chair. The straw is transposed and expanded on the Rush chair to the point where it becomes the main element. Through this process, the memory is transformed into the essence of the chair. Thanks to the inner steel structure, the chair's overall shape is no longer restricted to the bulky aesthetic of the past; it appears light and aerial, maintaining the stiffness that the rushing technique affords. Photo credit : Benjamin Ledu

The 'Hippo' is a series of lamps attached on a magnetic spindle. The rounded glass volume with the reflective metal calyx stays stable by the pull of magnetism. Hippo is easy to set and change as desired by the user. It possesses a sculptural and modern presence with its soft and cozy diffused light. Photo credit : A+A Cooren

'Wryneck' side table by Pool
Borrowed from the forest, the trunk "Wryneck" uses both the craftsmanship of the veneer and industrial technology of the digital cutting to find its place in a domestic space,without renouncing its original state. Photo credit : Benjamin Ledu

"In very little time, their pioneering work, production, and commercialisation of new object and furniture collections has permitted a new generation of designers to stand out and become visible. Their work has also given this new wave confidence. Now uninhibited, polyglot and entrepreneurial, they take risks, auto-produce and are opening out to the world. From amongst these numerous new faces, five obviously outstanding are presented at this exhibition: A+A Cooren, Ionna Vautrin, Pierre Favresse, Studio Nocc and Pool."

Floor lamp 'Forêt illuminée' by Ionna Vautrin
Two trees intertwined, an imaginary animal, a cloud hugging the ground ...
Composed of a luminous cocoon wearing two trunks of wood, this light awakens the imagination.
Two simple wooden cylinders extend as light masts on which lies a misty lampshade in tyvek. Photo credit : Ionna Vautrin

'Torii' stool by A+A Cooren
Inspired by the traditional Japanese Shrine gate, Torii is a comfortable stool made in Ash and Oak wood. The Torii can fit in any small space, and can also be used as an ottoman.
The shelf under the comfortable curved seat can be used as a useful storage space for magazines or books. Photo credit : Anthony Girardi

'Metal band' shelves by A+A Cooren
Inspired by a children's rubber-band toy gun, the wooden shelves are affixed to vertical tube legs by a large metal band. By combining the module elements, the height and width are easily customizable.
The vertical protruding part of shelf prevents books from falling sideways. Photo credit : A+A Cooren

Collection 'Perch' by Pierre Favresse
The Perch Collection consists of several pieces based on the same construction: a reading chair, coat rack, rocking chair, chair and desk with integrated light. With this collection I wanted to show a large family of functionalities working off the same principle. Colour scheme harmony was also an important part of the project with each colour “coded” for a different function, or specific place you would typically find the piece of furniture in your home. Photo credit : Benjamin Ledu

Exhibition: "Nouvelle vague, the new French domestic landscape "
Curator: Cédric Morisset
Centre Culturel Français
Palazzo delle Stelline
Corso Magenta 63
20123 Milano - Italy
From 12th to 17th April 2011 - from 10am to 7pm

Abitare: 50 years of design: The best of architecture, interiors, photography, travel and trends 1961-2011

Abitare: 50 Years of Design is the first-ever compilation of the most innovative design magazine of the 1960s and 1970s. Launched in 1961, Abitare is a revolutionary lifestyle magazine, the source of all things hip, important, and avant-garde, covering a wide range of topics including contemporary design, lifestyle, and modern architecture.

Abitare was founded to cover the growing influence of Italian design but also to gather the most interesting trends worldwide, from the mod fashion in London, and the rise of alternative lifestyles in New York and San Francisco, to the development of industrial design in Milan. Classic articles from Abitare are reproduced in full, with their original English and Italian texts, while new essays by noted writers and past editors reflect on the influence of this avant-gardist magazine.

Contributors to the book, including senior curator of Design at the MoMA Paola Antonelli, are all former editors of Abitare, and are now considered arbiters of style and design worldwide. Their new essays, along with the classic original articles reproduced in full in English and Italian constitute an important milestone in the analysis and appreciation of design.

Book for sale on Amazon: Abitare: 50 years of design: The best of architecture, interiors, photography, travel and trends 1961-2011
Edited by Mario Piazza - Rizzoli New York

The O10 lamp designed by French designer Guillaume Delvigne is part of the first Specimen collection 'Prospectives O10'.

The collection is to be discovered at Designer's days in the showroom of Terre & Nuages in Paris from June 9 to 14 2010.

The light is reduced to a minimum. Snaking from one space to another, the electric flex draws the outlines.
Photo credits: Gabriel de Vienne