The Baker Cookstove was designed by Claesson Koivisto Rune for Top Third Ventures, a company set up in 2011 to sell stoves to low-income households in developing countries, with the aim of improving the health of users and lowering carbon dioxide emissions.

In countries like Kenya, where the Baker Cookstove is being launched first, cooking is traditionally done on a three-stone fire – an open fire over which a pot is balanced on three rocks.

This inefficient method not only requires lots of firewood, resulting in children being sent long distances to fetch wood instead of attending school, but also creates a large amount of lung-damaging smoke.

Claesson Koivisto Rune came up with a compact stove made from recycled aluminium that requires only a third of the amount of wood normally used for a three-stone fire.

Tests at the University of Nairobi showed the Baker Cookstove achieved a 56% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions and a 38% reduction in smoke particles.

The shape of the stove and its bright colours are intended to resemble traditional African cookware.

"As designers we need to put the same effort into an African stove as if we were designing an Italian sports car," said the designers.

Above: movie shows Claesson Koivisto Rune's design process

We previously featured an aid kit that nestles between Coca-Cola bottles to bring medicine to remote locations and a bicycle-powered electronic waste recycler designed to save lives in developing countries.

Above: movie shows manufacturing process

Other cooking tools we've published include a liquor-distilling kit that breaks down into innocent household objects and a barbecue that chars food with geometric patterns – see all cooking design.

Above: movie shows how the stove is being sold across Kenya

Claesson Koivisto Rune's recent products include a chair with armrests that reach out for a hug and a family of small pendant lamps in bold colours – see all design by Claesson Koivisto Rune.

Here's some more information from the designers:

The majority of women in the developing world prepare food on a technology called a three-stone fire. It is basically three rocks that support a pot with an open fire in the middle. This cooking method is very inefficient and leads to many environmental and health problems, one very real side effect being that children are denied education and futures because they are sent to collect firewood, wood that every day is founder at further distances. The walk takes all day and leaves no time for school.

However, since the three-stone method has been a tradition for thousand of years, a new stove must allow the user to keep their way of life intact to be successful. The solution is to make a stove that burns wood, but as efficiently as possible.

The design approach has really been the same as with any design project. Design is about solutions – function, usability, unification – and about adding an immaterial – humane, aesthetic, iconic – dimension.

You can still cook over burning wood, but with the Baker stove you need only one third of the wood of before. In numbers from tests at the University of Nairobi the Baker Cookstove achieve a 56% reduction in CO and 38% reduction in particulate matter.

Local methods of cooking, tools and containers were studied as inspiration and to gain cultural insight. As a result the final shape of the Baker Cookstove as well as its strong colours are reminiscent of traditional African cookware.

The goal was to design a subtly iconic object. A functionalistic design, yet recognisable and memorable. The road up to the final incarnation has turned several times after research and performance optimisation changed the technical parameters. There are good reasons for each and every design choice, like the use of recycled aluminium and the trapezoid folding that correspond to weight, heat transmission, sturdiness etcetera.

The somewhat eye-opening obvious fact is that we all have an emotional relationship with our objects. The psychology is no different if you have less or have it all; if you relate to a basic cookstove in Africa or a high performance car in the streets of Europe. To hand out functioning but crude and cheap cooking tools to "the poor" is commendable but condescending. Would I myself really appreciate a cheap and ugly tool offered to me because it "works and improves my life"? Maybe that's not good enough. As designers we need to put the same effort into an African stove as were we designing an Italian sports car.

The Baker stove project has inspired us not for the prospect of making money, not for the design itself, but for the extraordinary satisfaction of actually making a tangible, positive difference in many people's lives and for the environment. And eventually, if the end users will come to tell us that they are proud to own this stove, our day is made.

Design: Claesson Koivisto Rune (through Mårten Claesson, Eero Koivisto, Ola Rune, Louise Bahrton and Patrick Coen)
Producer: Top Third Ventures (through Lucas Belenky and Björn Hammar)
Manufacturing: Kenya (locally)

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Claesson Koivisto Rune appeared first on Dezeen.

The Hug range by Claesson Koivisto Rune for Italian brand Arflex features deep, thin arms that angle upwards and outwards.

"The friendly and welcoming gesture, seen most clearly in the ‘open-armed’ position of the armrests, is meant as a universal invitation, saying 'come, sit with me a while and I’ll put you at ease,'" say the designers.

The upholstered seat, backrest and arms sit on a wooden plinth supported by legs in a contrasting colour.

The Hug collection includes a dining chair, a lower side chair and a high-backed club chair that's more enclosed.

Arflex presented the pieces at Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan last month, where Claesson Koivisto Rune also showed top-heavy chairs inspired by the work of American minimalist artist Ellsworth Kelly for Italian furniture brand Tacchini. See more design by Claesson Koivisto Rune.

Meanwhile Spanish designer Jaime Hayón presented another chair with outstretched arms for Danish brand &tradition.

See all our stories about chair design »
See all our stories about products launched at Milan 2013 »

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Inspired by the block colours and simple shapes found in the work of American minimalist artist Ellsworth Kelly, Claesson Koivisto Rune has upholstered the pair of padded Kelly chairs in vivid tones.

The rounded seat and back of the first chair appear to be formed from one section that is pinched at the place where they join.

A giant square back with rounded corners and a rectangular seat of the same width make up the larger chair.

Designed for Italian furniture brand Tacchini, both models have thin metal legs and bracing that look like they rest lightly against each other.

The legs of the bigger chair are stabilised with two crossed rods at the back, while the smaller seat has a single bar that spans beneath the seat to join the secondary struts on each side.

Tacchini is showing the furniture at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile, stand C25 hall 16, until Sunday.

The Swedish designers are also presenting a kit-of-parts for a prefabricated Scandinavian house in Milan this week.

See more design by Claesson Koivisto Rune »
See all our coverage of Milan 2013 »
See our Milan 2013 map »

Claesson Koivisto Rune sent us the text below:

Kelly seating family

Inspiration does not follow straight lines. Only in hindsight does it appear logical. But one thing is true: Inspiration is inspirational.

One inspired artist is American Ellsworth Kelly. And that inspired us.

But it takes more to create inspired product design than an inspired Swedish designer. It takes two to play. This crazy, weird, childish, beautiful, wonderful play-doh-graphic universe is just the kind of inspiration that you can only develop into serious furniture together with an inspired manufacturer. And we’re so happy we’ve got Tacchini, the Italian friend willing to play.

It’s not art, it’s just design. But that’s what we do. With joy. Enjoy.

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for Tacchini appeared first on Dezeen.

"The prefab/kit house market generally prefers fake historical over contemporary," says Claesson Koivisto Rune, "and it is more than common that an architect has not been involved at all." The team was keen to avoid this conservative approach and wanted to come up with a modern design that reflected current Swedish architecture.

With Tind House, they developed distinctive contemporary details for the roof shape, windows and doors of the flexible system, which can be constructed as a single-storey residence for a couple or a family home with two or three floors.

Each house features a roof with a gentle incline to match the housing vernacular in Sweden. The peak of the roof is flat, which the designers compare to the profiles of the Scandinavian Mountains.

Windows or skylights are generously sized to offer the best possible views and their frames are bevelled on the outside to create a rhythm with the rest of the facade, but each one sits flush with the interior walls.

"The greatest challenge was to meet the demands for a client-flexible house with maintained architectural integrity," architect Mårten Claesson told Dezeen. "We had to establish a couple of strong feature principles – the roof shape, the full cut-out of windows and doors, and their side alignment between different floor and roof levels – that would define a house that could vary in size, colour and number of floors."

Tind House is designed to sit on a level plan, but can easily be adapted to negotiate a sloping site. The layout can also be altered to suit different occupants and locations.

Ordinarily, the entrance and staircase are positioned at the front of the building and lead through to living and dining rooms at the back. Utility rooms, bathrooms and bedrooms are placed at the sides, plus extra bedrooms and bathrooms occupy the upstairs floors on the two- and three-storey buildings.

The house is manufactured by Swedish house builder Fiskarhedenvillan and will be presented at the Globo Art Space in Milan.

Claesson Koivisto Rune comprises a team of designers and architects, whose projects includes lighting and furniture, as well as architecture. They recently presented a collection of colourful pendant lamps and a set of solid brass coat hooks as part of Stockholm Design Week. See more design by Claesson Koivisto Rune, including a house on the Baltic island of Öland.

Other prefabricated houses we've featured include one in Portugal that costs the same as a family car and another home that's lifted into place by a helicopter. See more prefabricated buildings on Dezeen.

Images are by Peter Guthrie.

Here's a project decription from Claesson Koivisto Rune:

Claesson Koivisto Rune at Globo Art Space - Tind house

Claesson Koivisto Rune Architects is showing for the first time to an international audience their new house called Tind. Tind is a prefab house and represents a brand new typology for this particular field.

Globo being a manufacturer of sanitary porcelain, it is perhaps peculiar to show architecture during the Salone del Mobile. But Globo Art Space is not a commercial scene but a new gallery space offered by Globo to promote art, architecture and related culture in general.

Claesson Koivisto Rune is also a product and furniture design practice, but is during this event proud to present their architecture, by showing their most recent project. It will also be an example of the Scandinavian approach to living, not in the usual historic, modernistic context, but right now, right here.

The Tind* house is a new prefab house by Swedish Claesson Koivisto Rune Architects. Manufactured by Fiskarhedenvillan and provided to clients as a complete building kit.

The prefab/kit house market is traditionally conservative and generally prefers fake historical over contemporary. And it is more than common that an architect has not been involved at all. If this is from neglect on the manufacturers' side or arrogance from the architects' is difficult to know. What we do know, is that it is time for change.

We have built a house built on a concept built on a set of features. The prefab house needs to be flexible in size and configuration to accomodate individual families' needs and individual locations. So in order to maintain the houses' architectural integrity it is some strong features rather than exact dimensions that are important.

The first feature is the roof:

The traditional Swedish one-family house has a single-pitch roof. With its pitch angle not as steep as in Germany and not as gentle as in Italy, but in between. The Tind house's roof starts with this typical Swedish pitch. But then the peak is cut off. So that the roof becomes somewhat of a hybrid between single-pitch and flat.

The second feature is the window niches:

First, windows are few, but big, and allocated to the most important walls, rather than many, small and on every wall. Second, every opening, window or door, is flush with the interior. Furthermore the thicknesses of the joists are disguised by bevelling the niche. This allows the house to become a rhythmic composition of wall and void, wall and void. Rather than the usual volume with punched holes.

The third feature is alignment:

The division between roof and walls is clear and sharp; like a waistline. Sharp is also the one-side alignment between windows on overlying floors. Every line and every cut aligns with another; with the next.

The interior layout is generous in spatial flow and efficient in actual flow. The entrance and staircase is at the core. Directly onward lies the communal living, dining and kitchen area. A second, side entranceway goes through a combined storage and wash room. For brushing off your shoes or dog from a muddy walk in the forest before entering the living areas. Bedrooms and bathrooms are either upstairs, downstairs or to the side end of the house. The general ambience is that of outdoor and indoor being connected.

* Tind is Norwegian for Mountain Peak. One difference between the Scandian mountain range and most other mountain ranges, such as the Alps, is the lack of sharp pointed peaks. This because the last big ice age shaved them off when retracting. In Scandinavia we find our mountains particularly beautiful because of this feature.

Above: Tind house one - ground floor plan

Above: Tind house one - facades

Above: Tind house two - ground floor plan

Above: Tind house two - first floor plan

Above: Tind house two - facades

Above: Tind house three - ground floor plan

Above: Tind house three - first floor plan

Above: Tind house three - second floor plan

Above: Tind house three - facades

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Claesson Koivisto Rune appeared first on Dezeen.

For Stockholm Design Week, Skultuna's brassworks teamed up with Stockholm studio Claesson Koivisto Rune to produce Face, three coat hooks made of solid brass (above and below).

Stockholm-based designer Monica Förster came up with a series of spun brass flower pots in three sizes (top), while design duo Folkform created a bookend based on geometric shapes (bottom).

Skultuna was founded in the Swedish town of the same name in 1607, and remains under royal warrant to produce fine metal objects such as chandeliers, candlesticks and cufflinks. In 2011, Venetian designer Luca Nichetto presented a series of brass bowls for the brand.

Other products launching in Stockholm this week include a collection of porcelain and wood pendant lamps and a chair that can be dressed up in an assortment of garments – see more products from Stockholm Design Week 2013.

See all coat hooks »
See all brass »

Here's some more information from Skultuna:

Face wall hangers by Claesson Koivisto Rune

Face is a series of three wall hangers designed by Claesson Koivisto Rune for Skultuna. The wall hangers are cast in solid brass and highly polished to create an almost mirror like surface. The wall hangers are in the last stages of development and will be released during the spring of 2013. Skultuna is one of the oldest companies in the world, founded in the year 1607 as a brass foundry by King Karl IX.

Flower Pots by Monica Förster

Some time ago the Swedish design icon Monica Förster met up with Viktor Blomqvist, managing director of Skultuna and discusses a possible design cooperation. Skultuna is one of the oldest companies in the world, founded in the year 1607 as a brass foundry by King Karl IX. Staying true to the historic production methods of Skultuna, Monica Förster and her design studio came up with a series of three Flower Pots made in the very old method of metal spinning. Metal spinning is a production method that has been in constant use during the last centuries in Skultuna and makes it possible to make large round three dimensional objects out of sheet metal. The Flower Pots resemble classical pots made of terracotta with a small inclination in the lower part. The Flower Pots comes in three sizes and are made of highly polished brass plate.

Bookend by Folkform

The Bookend is the latest product from the red hot Swedish designer duo called Folkform. With its geometrical sharp shapes and the highly polished surface, the Bookend is a striking composition. The Bookend is in the last stage of development and will be released during the spring of 2013. Folkform consists of designers Anna Holmquist and Chandra Ahlsell that began their partnership in 2005. The Stockholm-based studio is already represented in the Swedish National Art collection and the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Oslo. Folkform has previously designed the popular candlestick Collage for Skultuna.

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