The Area Bed has a modular headboard with a range of pieces, both curved and straight, which act as room dividers.

Belgian bed manufacturer Magnitude asked Gilles to develop a design that would fit with its standard box-spring bed bases. "I presented several beds [and] they eventually picked the 'room in a room' concept," Gilles told Dezeen.

"The headboard becomes a piece that can redefine the whole architecture of the room and its general dynamic," he explained.

It's made of wooden panels covered with a layer of foam and upholstered with fabric. Two bedside tables, a lamp and a bench, all made from aluminium and steel, complete the collection.

Gilles was named Designer of the Year 2012 by the Interieur Foundation and will be presenting a retrospective of his work including his Big Table for Bonaldo alongside Area Bed at the Interieur 2012 design exhibition in Belgium until from tomorrow until 28 October.

Other work by Gilles we've featured on Dezeen includes modular containers made from bright white boxes and chairs made from discarded objects.

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Here's some more information from the designer:

Area Bed – the room within a room concept

This novel bed concept is about understanding and taking into account not only what a bed is used for today, but also for what different functions a bedroom can be used for. The idea was then to design a bed that answers these new needs and opens up the possibilities.

The bedroom has become more than just a place where people sleep. In some cases it is now also used as a bathroom, a personal office, or as an extra room or living room. So the idea is to offer a bed that through the modularity of its bed head can also serve as room divider and room organiser. The bed head then becomes a piece that can redefine the whole architecture of the room and its general dynamic just like a wall or room practitioner would. The bed itself can now be used to define a space for a bathroom, or for a small office behind the bed for instance, thus creating a sort of room in a room concept.

But the headboard can also become an element that wraps around the walls to create a cocoon-like-space where a small desk or armchair can be placed along the bed as in some hotels, thus creating warmer and more confined spaces. The “Area” bed can be configured in a lot of different possibilities, since the ends of the headboard are treated as add-ons that can either be curved at 90 degrees or straight, thus offering the possibility to create more opened or closed spaces.

Visually, the “Area” bed plays on asymmetry to bring a dynamic to something that is usually seen as rather static. It is also a fairly graphic bed thanks to its extra elements such as the small bedside table, “pocket table”, repositionable lamp and bench. All these elements create a contrast with the bed itself thanks to the use of aluminium and steel.

As for the “pocket table” it is the answer to the need people have to sometimes hide things in a drawer. It is a drawer without the drawer... a drawer with easier access at night since there is no need to open it. It is a visually light element where the functionality of the drawer is created thanks to the shadow created by the opening... a pocket where things can be partly hidden in a very subtle manner.

As for the lamp, it can be repositioned by the user along the top of the bed head that then acts as a supporting rail. All the extra elements such as the bedside table or bench for instance have been designed using the minimum amount of material and transformation needed and in order to bring an idea of lightness to the warm, comfortable and welcoming beds that Magnitude stands for.

This bed is very much about offering new opportunities to the end-users and architects, the possibility to create rooms in rooms or to define areas thanks to its modular headboard and to offer playful elements to organize the area where one sleep.

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for Magnitude appeared first on Dezeen.

Brussels designer Alain Gilles has designed this modular storage system for Italian brand Casamania.

Called Container Sideboard, the design consists of a wooden plinth underneath variously sized boxes, drawer units, fold-out cabinets and filing trays.

These elements can be reconfigured as required.

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The information below is from Alain Gilles:

Container Sideboard Design Alain Gilles for Casamania

Container is a modular sideboard system. As if a regular sideboard had been split into different elements, different “containers”.

It is really a research on deconstruction and reconstruction. As if a “standard” sideboard with its different storage functionalities had been split into various elements just to be reconstructed in a different, uneven manner.

A research on the architecture of a piece in order to bring forward its construction logic. In a way, a “landing dock”, the base, and a few “containers” that can be set one on top of the other... hence its name.

The work on the structure is further highlighted by the association of different materials and finishes applied to each structural element.

By playing with different types of finishes and settings several furniture pieces with their own personalities and functions can easily be created form the same original elements. Thus, it will either be seen as more a sideboard, dresser, media storage cabinet or television stand and find its way into different rooms of the house.

When several elements are combined, it behaves more like system.

General dimensions:
228 x 60 x 89cm (W x D x H)
89.8 x 23.6 x 35 inches ( W x D x H )

Materials: base in Elm wood, containers in lacquered MDF.

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for Casamania appeared first on Dezeen.

Brussels designer Alain Gilles has created two armchairs combining second-hand objects for non-profit Belgian organisation Les Petits Riens/Spullenhulp.

Called Experimenta One & Two, the chairs will be auctioned tomorrow as part of a project called Second Hand, Second Life, where thirty designers and stylists have been asked to give a second life to discarded objects such as furniture and clothing. Profits generated from auctioning the items will be used for social projects.

Gilles' project combines two 1960's rattan chair shells with metal legs and a textile cover, held in place by plastic clips.

Here's some information from Gilles about the project:

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The “Experimenta One & Two” armchair are the result of a discussion between the old and the new, between the original “vintage” piece and its reclaimed modern transformation.  The past, the original 1960’s rattan seat, has become the structural foundation for the new reclaimed one.  Its origins are not at all hidden, just whitened and in a way blurred by the 3D woven textile cover.

It is a combination between very old production techniques and extremely modern 3D weaving technologies. The inner qualities of the textile are used to redefine the object. Its strength gives it its unique shape, and its structure has made the connection between the cover and the existing chair very simple and almost invisible. The binding is made by some very small plastic auto-fastening cable clamps that entrap only one side of the 3D fabric to hold it in position. The two seats are also an experimentation on the graphic weight of an object. Both armchairs are very similar, only the placement of two graphic stripes give them a unique personality. The emphasis it creates is meant to alter the perception and visual shape of the object.

This “experimental” project has been specialy created for  “Les Petits Riens/Spullenhulp” a non profit organisation created some 70 years ago in Brussels and currently active in the whole of Belgium. They collect discarded objects such as furniture and clothing. These are either redistributed to those in need, or the profits generated by the sales of these vintage pieces are used to finance specific social projects intended to favor the socio-professional re-integration of people.

For the seventh time in a row they are organizing an event called  “Second Hand, Second life” .  They have asked  17 designers and 13 stylists to give a  “second life”  to some of the furniture and clothing they have collected.  These one-off and very unique creations are then auctioned off to collectors at the end of a ceremony that will take place on Friday 16th October 2009 in the “Tour & Taxis”  hall in Brussels.  This annual event is meant to promote their activity, but also to collect funds for the organization.

The designers participating in the “Second Hand, Second Life” auction are:

Alain Berteau, Olivier Berghmans & Olivier Gilson, Michaël Bihain, Steven Brouns, Benoît Deneufbourg, Louis de Limburg Stirum, Hans De Pelsmacker, Nicolas Destino, Nedda El-Asmar, Alain Gilles, Linde Hermans, Pascal Koch, Gauthier Poulain, Pol Quadens, stefan schöning, Lennart Van Uffelen & le team ToMA Gerkens, Barbara Helft, Cedric Van Cauwenberghe, Charlotte Lancelot & David Richiuso

The stylists participating in the “Second Hand, Second Life” auction are:

Monsieur Bul, Lisa Colpaert, Fabienne Delvigne, An Eckers, Caroline Foulon, Sandrina Fasoli, Carine Gilson, les Hommes, Marius Pompon, Sigi, Edouard Vermeulen (NATAN), Team Petits Riens, Christian Wijnants.

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Milan 09: Brussels designer Alain Gilles presented a table for Italian furniture brand Bonaldo in Milan last month.

The table legs slope out from the centre under the wooden top.

Each is made of laser-cut sheet steel, folded and painted in different colours.

The design was launched under the name Big Foot Table, but has since been renamed Big Table - "the name 'big foot' had already been officially registered by someone else," Gilles exlains.

See all our stories from Milan 09 in our special category.

The following text is from Gilles:

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BIG TABLE Design Alain Gilles for Bonaldo

A strong personality, always in movement, always trying to put one foot in front of the other. As if it were walking, each foot stretches to reach further away. Whatever the angles, it always looks strikingly different from one point of view to another, as if you could never really grab it.

It has been sculpted in 3D by the hand rather than by the pure logic of the computer. Even though it is a large functional table, and follows some strict rules, all the legs have their own characteristics and have been positioned and oriented manually in order to give the whole structure a warmer and more human feeling.

A mix of rather traditional materials, steel and wood, give a rather unexpected and fresh product. The legs are made of  steel plates that have been laser cut and folded. All the legs have a different width, and have been cut and bend in order to reveal different tonalities of their own color, in order to play with shadows.

As for the angled cuts in the legs, they increase this ever changing perception of a product, that looks drastically different from one side to the other; they also add detail to the piece and give it a much lighter feel.

The metal legs can then become of field of experimentation for all sorts of color combinations, thus giving birth to a more experimental or a more traditional table.

Dimensions:  250 x 100 x 74cm  and  300 x 100 x 74cm

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