Pininfarina Unveils Limited Edition Oksýs Chaise Longue: Merging Automotive Design with Luxury Furniture

Posted on 28/05/2024 by Sarang Sheth

Legendary Italian design house Pininfarina, famed for its historic decades-long collaboration with Ferrari, has unveiled its debut piece of collectible furniture – the Oksýs chaise longue. This unique creation seamlessly blends the company’s automotive design heritage with the functionality of a high-end chaise lounge. The Oksýs is a limited-edition statement piece designed to complement Pininfarina’s recent foray into branded residential projects. The chaise longue embodies the studio’s core design principles, which center on the harmonious marriage of aesthetics and technical innovation.

Designer: Pininfarina

The Oksýs is a striking visual interplay of contrasting elements. The upper section features smooth, ergonomic lines reminiscent of a Pininfarina sports car. This section is crafted for comfort and boasts a reflective finish that invites touch. In stark contrast, the lower portion resembles a rough, crystal-like rock, creating a sense of groundedness.

“Seen from above, Oksýs is smooth and reflects light with no aggressive angles,” explains Marco Becucci, the in-house architect who designed the chaise longue. “This upper part invites the user to touch it, while the lower section offers a textural counterpoint, left coarse and milled to resemble an untouched rock.”

The design and development process for the Oksýs mirrored Pininfarina’s approach to creating high-performance automobiles. The project began with sketches, followed by ergonomic testing, computer-aided modeling, and finally, the creation of physical models using CNC milling to achieve the complex form.

The prototype showcased at Milan Design Week was crafted from polyurethane and finished with a gleaming epoxy resin, creating a captivating metallic effect. Pininfarina envisions future iterations cast entirely in steel or aluminum, further solidifying the connection to its automotive roots. Only three Oksýs chaise longues will be produced, each sold exclusively through the Rossana Orlandi gallery.

The post Pininfarina Unveils Limited Edition Oksýs Chaise Longue: Merging Automotive Design with Luxury Furniture first appeared on Yanko Design.

Origin is like a sci-fi sculpture you can actually lounge on

Posted on 15/06/2022 by Rei Padla

Origin Lounge Chair Elsewhere Collection

They say “two heads are better than one,” and we believe in this saying if the subject is the design art duo Batten and Kamp. Currently based in Hong Kong, New Zealand-born Alexandra Batten and Daniel Kamp have been working on one-of-a-kind furniture pieces that sell and are being acquired by galleries and clients from all over the world. Batten and Kamp is a creative partnership between two talented designers whose works are exhibited at galleries in New York, Shanghai, Paris, Tokyo, Seoul, Copenhagen, and Hong Kong. Their projects are all functional sculptures that many creatives and collectors patronize for their brilliance, allure, and unique charm. The two are in a successful creative partnership that works by launching fascinating, rare, and attractive objects like this well-designed lounge chair.

Designers: Alexandra Batten and Daniel Kamp

Origin Lounge Chair Elsewhere Collection 8

Alexandra Batten and Daniel Kamp’s latest collection is a limited edition release of common objects we use every day—things you can find at home like lights, a table, sculptures, and lounge chairs. Elsewhere is a new collection of furniture items that appear more like sculptures but still function as they are supposed to. One remarkable piece we are focusing on is the Origin lounge chair that features a jet black plywood resting on a giant mass of stone, offering sturdy support, height, and comfort.

Aside from the bent plywood, the Origin lounge chair also uses granite, acrylic, and stainless steel fastenings. This thing measures 1400mm x 600mm x 900mm (LWH), and it is one furniture piece you would want to put on your patio or just about anywhere you want to lounge, chill, or relax. If you don’t think a lounge chair like this is that important, then maybe it’s time you understand what the words rest and relaxation really mean.

Origin Lounge Chair Elsewhere Collection 5

Origin Lounge Chair Elsewhere Collection 6

The whole collection by Batten and Kamp consists of seven pieces, including a table, sculptures, and lights. The Origin lounge chair is actually just one of the two chairs as there is also the transparent version called the Elsewhere Acrylic Chaise. Like the Origin, the other piece is a product of creativity, combining beautiful shapes naturally formed, then constructed from whatever fragments of earth are available. The effect is minimalist but with a hint of surrealism that makes every piece unique, mysterious, and interesting.

Origin Lounge Chair Elsewhere Collection 7

The design duo usually utilizes different materials that are almost eclectic that may not suit the tastes of some people. But what we have seen so far is pretty dramatic with the choice and combination of materials from bent plywood to acrylic to cast aluminum to boulders, neon, silk, and titanium. These are minimal materials, yet when mixed create pieces that are appealing, majestic, and sometimes other-worldly.

Batten and Kamp imagines the Origin lounge chair as something you’d be comfortably lying on while on a “windswept coastline of New Zealand staring out into space”. Meanwhile, the transparent version, Elswhere, is imagined on a “rocky surface of another planet looking longingly back at earth.” It doesn’t matter what you get between the two versions because they are both stunning pieces and are good enough to be conversation starters.

Origin Lounge Chair Elsewhere Collection 4

Batten and Kamp have been creating exquisite art pieces and functional sculptures using different materials. They have already shared and showcased their works at top galleries worldwide—from Hong Kong to Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai, Copenhagen, Paris, and New York. We highly doubt the Elsewhere collection will be the last of the two. They’ve just started making a mark in the furniture design industry, and we know they have a bright future ahead.

Origin Lounge Chair 2

Origin Lounge Chair Batten and Kamp

Origin Lounge Chair Elsewhere Collection 2

Origin Lounge Chair 3

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This chaise lounge’s resting surface was inspired by the shape of a spine

Posted on 02/05/2022 by Sarang Sheth

Named Chaise Espinhal or ‘Spinal Chaise’ in Portuguese, this unique-looking chaise lounge comes with an incredibly memorable design, featuring a spine-inspired rest made from 56 individual wooden cylinders aligned together and mounted on a sheet metal base. Depending on where you look at it from, the chaise does look like it has its own spine, and I imagine it would be rather fun to sit on (sort of like those wooden-bead car seat covers!

Designer: Mauricio Coelho

There’s an undeniable dynamism to the Chaise Espinhal, even though it’s pretty static to look at. The wood follows a Gestalt of continuity, creating a wave-like surface through a series of 56 wooden cylinders lined up precisely. The chair isn’t just visually appealing, it has a raw tactile quality too, and I can bet my bottom dollar that your hand will want to run itself along the wooden surface at least once!

A lot of Coelho’s work involves experimenting with forms, compositions, and proportions. A furniture designer by profession, Coehlo tries to make the mundane interesting, and the simple look complex. He often uses materials in expected and unexpected ways, sometimes making wood look soft, or leather look hard. For the Chaise Espinhal, the wood takes on a more human-like appeal, with its skeletal inspiration. Just like a spine looks delicate but can carry the weight of your entire body and then some more, the Chaise Espinhal has a minimal frailty to its design, but thanks to its sheet metal and wood construction, can comfortably take on the weight of a human.

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Sustainable, beautiful and comfy chairs that are made from stacks of factory offcut felt

Posted on 28/01/2022 by JC Torres

Surplus materials and offcuts are often reused to create art pieces that try to send a message. A new system, however, tries to turn what is considered waste into sustainable furniture for the living room that you can actually use and sit on.

The demand for clothing and furniture upholstery has probably gone up in the past few years, as more people become more attuned to well-designed products. That means more materials are used for production, which unfortunately also means more scraps are left on the cutting room floor, quite literally. While some of these materials are biodegradable or at least recyclable, one design firm is putting them to good use to create furniture that not only looks comfortable but artistically striking as well.

Designer: Stacklab

How many ways can you cut felt to turn it into something usable? Apparently, there are a lot of ways, especially if you let a machine decide. More than just a collection of designer furniture in the form of chairs, lounges, and benches, Stackabl is actually a new system that mixes machine precision with human creativity. In a nutshell, a specialized configurator software analyzes choices made by a user or a designer, like colors or dimensions, and selects high-quality felt offcuts that are then cut by robots for use in making furniture.

With limitations set by this configurator, six designers from Maison Gerard set out to create memorable designer furniture that looks almost wasteful if you didn’t know they were made from factory surplus and offcuts. Each designer expressed different ideas and influences, resulting in wildly different designs.

The Raki corner chair, for example, exudes a spirit of play and frivolity with its uneven form and non-uniform legs, while Dulces dining chair might remind you of the cake it’s named after, especially one with a sweet pink filling in the middle. The Madame chaise lounge’s predominantly red hue and sloping “shoulders” make it look exotic, while the Maxine bench’s mix of design influences is just as varied as its colors.

In addition to reusing materials that would normally be thrown away, Stackabl also puts the power and choice into the hands of regional manufacturers and designers. By keeping in touch with regional sources for these materials and allowing designers from that region to exercise their creativity, Stackabl tries to hit two birds with one stone in reducing carbon footprint while also enriching and empowering local economies.

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An introvert-friendly semi-enclosed chaise lounge chair that doubles as a private resting area for public spaces!

Posted on 22/09/2021 by Shawn McNulty-Kowal

‘Esc.’ is a semi-enclosed chaise lounge chair designed to double as a resting space in public to get away from overpowering outdoor stimuli.

Nowadays, the world is at our fingertips–it can be hard to get away from it all, even for only a minute. Distractions come in the form of digital timelines, midday traffic, lunch rushes, and our own smartphones. Our minds and mental health could benefit from a moment’s rest. Realizing the need for a piece of furniture that could double as a place of respite in public spaces, student designer Toine Baert of Two One Design created ‘Esc.,’ a semi-enclosed chaise lounge chair.

Designed to provide people with a secluded resting area, ‘Esc.’ is essentially a chaise lounge chair that’s partly wrapped in an overhead umbrella-like awning. Baert felt inspired to create a private nook for the Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) to look forward to when the stimuli of everyday life become too much. The overhead awning buffers any noise coming from outside to offer an acoustically, visually, and emotionally quiet hideaway inside. The awning can even be adjusted to varying positions to tread the spectrum between enclosed and semi-enclosed, offering anything between an open bench to a dark zone for sleeping. Made from 100% recycled PET felt and durable wood, ‘Esc.’ was made responsibly and built to last.

With upcoming generations giving more credence to the needs and stressors of mental health, design-focused industries are following suit. ‘Esc.’ was developed in part to showcase the ways that furniture can work as a conduit for change within the field of design, creating solutions for today’s and tomorrow’s obstacles.

Designer: Toine Baert x Two One Design

This transformative furniture lets you lounge on your desk during WFH

Posted on 29/04/2020 by Ruchi Thukral

I am a huge foodie, and I have noticed this in both cuisine and design that the French love taking what you know, flipping it on its head, and giving you a crazier yet better version while you just sit there wondering “How do they do this every time?!”. The latest product to fall in this category is the ‘Chaise Renversée’ – a desk that can also transform into a long chair by the famous French architect Pierre-Louis Gerlier. The literal translation of Chaise Renversée is ‘chair overturned’, I love how simply the French put everything.

Since we are all cooped up in our homes, we are constantly finding ways to optimize space. Especially if you live in a city, you are likely to have everyday objects that are modular so that you have a functional space. Our current situation and the need to be flexible within a small space is exactly what inspired Gerlier to design the Chaise Renversée. It is the perfect blend of work from home and Netflix from home into one piece of modern furniture, it provides a stable table area to work and can then transform into the ‘Chaise Lounge’ when you want to relax.

“Chaise renversée is a desk for those who do not wish to have a desk,” says the architect, and I think that makes sense! If you only use your desk to reply to emails or pay the bills then it is inefficient to have a rigid, barely-used piece of furniture occupying space in your home. What we need is for our flexible lifestyle is what Gerlier gives us, a lounge chair that also works for work – if our 2020 mood could be translated into furniture, this is it. Sleeping on your desk has a whole new meaning.

Designer: Pierre-Louis Gerlier

Make your duvet more hipster!

Posted on 09/09/2016 by Sarang Sheth

inchworm_shezlong_1

It’s almost the weekend, which means two days of lazing in bed binge-watching stuff on your laptop. You know what’s better than that? Lazing in the Inchworm Shezlong. This Shezlong (Chaise-Lounge) chair is just a metal structure on which you pile your duvet, turning it into a hipster-awesome bed-chair that you can sit/lay on or sprawl across like the absolute free spirited person you are. The metal pipe structure can take a good amount of weight, and with a super soft duvet, it looks a little like a play-doh factory, which I personally find quite amusing! Netflix and Chill on my new Shezlong anyone??

Designer: Kafedra Mebeli

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