Industrial design students Emma Nilsson, Johanna Westin and Lisa Frode of Lund University, Sweden, have created a wooden bench with storage units as part of their Masters project.

Called Kitchen Sofa, wooden slats forming the seats can be lifted to reveal storage underneath.

Newspapers and books can be stored behind the back-rest and a drawer at the bottom of the seat provides more space.

The bench is made of locally sourced Swedish pine and will be on show at the Stockholm Furniture Fair in Februray 2011.

More furniture on Dezeen »

The following information is from the designers:

På sofflocket - a modern take on the traditional kitchen sofa, A design project by Emma Nilsson, Johanna Westin and Lisa Frode, Students at the Master Programme in Industrial Design, Lund University

The old and traditional kitchen sofa is usually the favourite place in the house. That’s where everything happens, from homework and naps to coffee and newspaper on a sunday morning.

This new edition offers the same functions as the traditional one but adapted to the modern way of living. The storage space is divided into two parts making it easy to reach and organize the content. With the open plan living area commonly occurring in today’s homes the back provides storage for books and/or newspapers.

The material used is locally produced swedish pine with small elm details. Pine is frequently occurring in the woods in the nordic regions and by using swedish wood the Co2 emissions are lower than if using imported wood. By using both traditional and new techniques we have created our own modified version of the traditional kitchen sofa.

The sofa will be exhibited at the stockholm furniture fair in february.

See also:

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Zuiderzee Settings by Kiki van Eijk	Built to Resi(s)t by Quinze & Milan and Eastpak	Lost in Sofa by Daisuke Motogi Architecture

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and Lisa Frode appeared first on Dezeen.

Dutch Design Week: Dutch designer Chris Kabel has won the €15,000 Doen Materiaalprijs 2009 for a chair and bench made entirely of polypropylene fabric.

Kabel's Seam Chair and Bench was announced as the winner of the annual award for innovative use of materials in Eindhoven on Saturday, during Dutch Design Week.

See more work by Chris Kabel in our earlier story.

Here's the jury report followed by a statement by Kabel:

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Jury Rapport DOEN | Materiaalprijs 2009

Date: 17 oktober 2009

Location: Klokgebouw, Eindhoven

Members of the Jury: Ursula Tischner (founder of  Econcept and tutor  sustainable product development at the Design Academy in Eindhoven), Ruud Koonstra (sustainable entrepeneur / founder and director of Tendris) and Arnout Visser (designer, form-finder)

A very promising technique

The Dutch Material Prize of €15.000 goes to Chris Kabel with the Seam Chair/ Seam Bench. The project of Chris Kabel is original, ingenious and very promising. For his product he uses one single material (polypropylene) that is cheap, non toxic and completely high-grade recyclable. With completely innovating technique he shapes this material into lightweight and rigid furniture pieces.

For a sustainable innovation in the future it is important that objects are made of a single material. It saves time in recycling and the material does not become conterminated. The technique as is used by Kabel saves energy and creates a lightweight material that can replace the toxic and single use thermosetting glass- and carbon fiber resin systems.

Resourceful and passionate designers that manage to combine existing knowledge and personal insights using unorthdox methods are of crucial importance for innovation.

The jury is impressed by the potential of the novel technique. A low tech approach leads to high tech possibilities. The jury feels this technique is applicable to many more objects. With this prize the jury hopes to stimulate Chris Kabel to develop the technique further and investigate new applications.

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Statement by Chris Kabel:

In 2007 I started a research project together with the material lab of the Aerospace Department of the Technical university in Delft and composites producer Lankhorst Indutech.

I wanted to see if the material Pure, that is produced by Lankhorst, could also find applications outside of the ballistic and automotive industries where it was mainly used until then. Pure is a 100% polypropylene (PP) woven fabric (comparable with the yellow and blue IKEA bags) with special properties

Pure starts as a textile cloth that becomes very rigid under the right pressure and temperature. It is woven of 100% PP yarn that has an inner core that melts at 180°C and an outer core that melts at around 130°C. At the right temperature the outer core melts and impregnates and fixates the inner cores; this process is comparable with resin and glass or carbon fibres. Having similar strenght Pure is 100% recyclabe as aposed to the glass fibre reinforced plastics that are currently used in the (furniture) industry.  This makes Pure a 100% recyclable and it doesn't nered to be downgraded, it can be used over and over again –just like gold-.

Because the Pure material is a fabric when not hardened it is also sewable. this brings another advantage: when a bag in the shape of a chair is sewn and filled like a sandbag so that it gets its shape you do not even need a mould to produce it. It is then put in a reusable bag and put in the oven on high pressure. after around an hour baking on 130°C (this is less than an apple pie) the fibers are impregnated and fixed together. A hole lets the sand come out and you are left with an ultra light piece of furniture. The blue seam is also PP by the way.

The goal of this chair protoype apart from seating is that it is a harbinger. With this chair I want to show that you do not need resin and glass or carbon fibres to create superlight (using little material) and superstrong constructions that are 100% recyclable.

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London Design Festival 09: Heatherwick studio have released more images of their Extrusions exhibition, on display at Haunch of Venison gallery in London.

The six extruded aluminium pieces of furniture were produced by the world's largest extrusion machine and required 300 hours of polishing each. See images of the pieces prior to polishing in our previous story.

Heatherwick conceived the project 18 years ago, his eventual ambition being to create a continuous 100 metre-long bench.

Heatherwick is currently working on more commercial applications for the process, including architectural components (such as façade elements) and mass-produced seating.

The exhibition continues until 7 November.

See all our stories about London Design Festival 2009 in our special category.

Further details from Haunch of Venison:

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Thomas Heatherwick presents the world’s first single component of metal furniture, extruded by machine, in a new display in the Senate Room at Haunch of Venison London.

The exhibition, Extrusions, includes six extruded, mirror polished, aluminium benches made without fixtures or fittings, which have been produced by the world’s largest extrusion machine. Heatherwick Studio commissioned a specially designed die through which aluminium was ‘squeezed’ into a chair profile, complete with legs, seat and back. The resulting extrusions are produced from one billet of aluminium. A billet is a large ‘plug’ of aluminium which is heated up and pushed through a die. The aluminium emerges in a raw unpolished finish which is then cut and sometimes shaped; each cut piece of bench then undergoes 300 hours of polishing. If pieces of the extrusion are not used they are melted down and made into further billets.

Heatherwick wants to continue to make new work with this die and is exploring a long held dream to create a 100-metre long bench. A billet weighs 830 kilos. In this new making process Heatherwick has commited to producing a body of work that will total no more than 200 metres in length.

The project, 18 years since conception, takes technology used in the aerospace industry to produce the world’s largest ever extruded piece of metal. Heatherwick’s extrusions are a celebration of a raw industrial process in which the machine creates each shape as a part of the extrusion cycle; the first part of the extrusion is often twisted and gnarled, which Heatherwick has left untouched, the second part is straight and clean, which Heatherwick has chosen to manipulate, the final part of the extrusion is the ‘tail’ as the billet runs out and thins into a final jaw-like cut.

The graceful aluminium pieces each have a unique, dramatic form that combines the back, seat and legs into one element. Until now, extrusion technology has been limited to smaller dimension profiles, and since graduating from the RCA in 1994, Heatherwick has been searching for a machine capable of producing a chair with legs, seat and back from a single component.

Heatherwick’s early graduation bench illustrates this long held quest: a simple ‘L’ profile twisted into a bench form. Finally, last year an industrial factory was sourced with whom to experiment and realise this ambition. Following the success of these first extrusions, Heatherwick is now working on more commercial products using this process to create components for archi­tectural construction, façade design and mass produced seating ranges suitable for contract.

Famed for his adventurous and original use of manufacturing processes and materials across the disciplines of architecture, art and design, Heatherwick s also renowned for his innovative, bold ideas at the forefront of manufacturing and design practice. Heatherwick’s projects take the design process to its broadest reaches, from entire buildings to handbags, bridges to furniture, and always involve a radical approach to manufacturing processes and use of materials.

Thomas Heatherwick (b.1970) founded the Heatherwick Studio in London in 1994 after graduating from the RCA. Today, the practice operates from a combined studio and workshop in King’s Cross, London where a team of architects, designers and makers work on projects ranging from buildings and bridges to products and large scale works of art. The studio’s work includes La Maison Unique, the flagship store for luxury French brand, in New York Longchamp, multi-award winning East Beach Café, Littlehampton, and bridge, Paddington. Current projects include a monastic building in Sussex and the British Pavilion for the Shanghai Expo in 2010.

Exhibited works:
Billet 1 Extrusions 1-6, 2009
Aluminium
Dimensions variable

HAUNCH OF VENISON
LONDON
6 Burlington Gardens
London W1S 3ET
United Kingdom

The post Extrusions by Thomas Heatherwick
- more images appeared first on Dezeen.

London Design Festival 09: an exhibition of six extruded aluminium furniture pieces by British designer Thomas Heatherwick has opened at Haunch of Venison in London.

Heatherwick's Extrusions series is produced using the world's largest extrusion machine, with each piece consisting of a single piece of aluminium polished for 300 hours to achieve a mirror finish (the images here show the pieces before polishing - pictures of the final installation to follow).

Extrusions is at Haunch of Venison, 6 Burlington Gardens, London W1s 3ET until 7 November.

See all our stories about London Design Festival 2009 in our special category.

More info from Haunch of Venison:

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PRESS RELEASE
THOMAS HEATHERWICK EXTRUSIONS
Until 8 NOVEMBER 2009

Thomas Heatherwick will present the world’s first single component of metal furniture, extruded by machine, at Haunch of Venison London this autumn.

The exhibition, Extrusions, will include six extruded, mirror polished, aluminium benches made without fixtures or fittings, which have been produced by the world’s largest extrusion machine. Heatherwick Studio commissioned a specially designed die through which aluminium was ‘squeezed’ into a chair profile, complete with legs, seat and back. The resulting exhibited extrusions are the early prototypes for a final outdoor installation – a 100 metre-long piece that tangles into an extraordinary form, which will be constructed and exhibited in 2010.

The project, 18 years in the making, takes technology used in the aerospace industry to produce the world’s largest ever extruded piece of metal. The project is also the first limited-edition work exhibited by Thomas Heatherwick.

The graceful aluminium pieces each have a unique, dramatic form that combines the back, seat and legs into one element. The sweeping parallel lines created through the extrusion process are contorted into random, gnarled endings: arbitrary swirling forms created through the inherent initiation and termination of the extrusion process.

Until now, extrusion technology has been limited to smaller dimension profiles, and since graduating from the RCA in 1994, Heatherwick has been searching for a machine capable of producing a chair with legs, seat and back from a single component.

Heatherwick’s early graduation bench illustrates this long held quest: a simple ‘L’ profile twisted into a bench form. Finally, last year an industrial factory was sourced with whom to experiment and realise this ambition. Following the success of these first extrusions, Heatherwick is now working on more commercial products using this process to create components for architectural construction, façade design and mass produced seating ranges suitable for contract.

Famed for his adventurous and original use of manufacturing processes and materials across the disciplines of architecture, art and design, Heatherwick is also renowned for his innovative, bold ideas at the forefront of manufacturing and design practice. Heatherwick’s projects take the design process to its broadest reaches, from entire buildings to handbags, bridges to furniture, and always involve a radical approach to manufacturing processes and use of materials.

The post Extrusions by Thomas Heatherwick appeared first on Dezeen.

Young Japanese designer Shizuka Tatsuno has designed an upholstered bench that can be converted into a chaise longue or an armchair and side table.

Designed for single-occupant living, Modular Bench can be reconfigured by moving upholstered elements that slot into holes in the base.

Tatsuno exhibited the bench at 100% Design Tokyo in November.

Here's some text from the designer:

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Shizuka Tatsuno is a product and furniture designer who moved to the UK in 2005 and graduated with the first class honor from the product and furniture course in Kingston University London in 2008. She exhibited in New Designers Exhibition, Tent London and 100% Design Tokyo Prototype in 2008 and is currently based in Tokyo.

Products revealing quality from using over time

Modular Bench is a modular seating unit for a live-alone. The bench can be changed to an arm chair with a small table, and a couch by sticking the arms and back in different holes and transforming the cushion.

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