Above: Pets stool by Hanna Emelie Ernsting

Objects for the Neighbour took place at Passagen, which runs alongside trade fair imm cologne, and featured eight designers' work inspired by the concept of neighbourhood.

Above: Pets stool by Hanna Emelie Ernsting

Among the objects shown were the Pets stools by Frankfurt-based designer Hanna Emelie Ernsting, a collection of stools with loose fabric seats that fold into animal shapes. In 2011, Ernsting won the [D3] Contest in Cologne for a couch that's perfect for stroppy people.

Above: Sample Avenue by Karoline Fesser

Cologne-based designer Karoline Fesser contributed Sample Avenue, a family of glass vessels with stacking floors that line up like houses. Last year in Cologne, Fesser launched a modular seating collection made up of giant cushions.

Above: Sample Avenue by Karoline Fesser

Inspired by a foreign neighbour who moved to the watchmaking town of Biel to be with his partner, Swiss designer Florian Hauswirth designed a pair of clocks for two time zones. We've featured lots of designs by Hauswirth, including an experimental game of chess.

Above: (T)here by Florian Hauswirth

Also included was a pair of room dividers by Cologne-based designer Thomas Schnur, whose previous work includes a wooden bench that sits on logs instead of legs.

Above: Barrier by Thomas Schnur

Wiesbaden-based designer Sarah Böttger came up with a collection of household objects including a broom, dustpan and door stopper.

Above: Common Things by Sarah Böttger

Frankfurt-based designer Kai Linke contributed stoneware vessels that also serve as side tables, inspired by the canning jars used in his home town to preserve food. We previously featured vases and side tables that Linke made by sand-blasting timber and casting the resulting shapes in ceramic.

Above: Buurman by Kai Linke

Belgian designer Julien Renault's trio of chairs was inspired by his elderly neighbour's habit of reading the newspaper on a park bench. Renault previously won the [D3] Contest in Cologne with a collection of hand-forged aluminium furniture.

Above: Park Chair by Julien Renault

Finally, German designer Hanna Krüger came up with a lighting collection inspired by ballet costumes, where each light represents an individual character with its own silhouette.

Above: Figurines by Hanna Krüger

We published lots of products from imm cologne this year, including the interlocking wooden shelving that won the [D3] Contest – see all designs from Cologne 2013.

Above: Figurines by Hanna Krüger

Here's some information from the organisers:

From 14th through 20th January 2013, the exhibition Objects for the Neighbour envisions what initially is out of reach. The focus is on the neighbour: eight designers create objects on the subject of neighbourhood, which they will display throughout the Passagen in Cologne.

The designers Sarah Böttger (D), Hanna Ernsting (D), Karoline Fesser (D), Florian Hauswirth (CH), Hanna Krüger (D), Kai Linke (D), Julien Renault (B) und Thomas Schnur (D) have already displayed their work at national and international fairs. They are united by friendship and their interest in serially produced products. With Objects for the Neighbour they engage in a joined topic, which is generally accessible. However, individually it can be very different in detail and complexity.

The neighbour – is it an actual person or rather a vague guess? Perhaps he is a mirage, wishful thinking or memory. Where is the start of a neighbourhood to begin with? At the own front door, the boundary of the city, the region, the country, the continent or the planet? Or does neighbourhood start within the family, friendship or a relationship?

Thus the subject neighbourhood therefore appears vague and fuzzy. Only through approaches and decisions it obtains an identity, which in turn can be divined based on the actual product.

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at Passagen appeared first on Dezeen.

Frankfurt designer Kai Linke has created a series of vases and side tables by sand-blasting timber to enhance the texture of the grain then casting the resulting shapes in ceramic.

Linke presented the new pieces in his ongoing Blasted Familii series at Tendence fair in Frankfurt last month.

"Blasted Familii is a series of simple, blasted objects made out of spruce wood," he explains.

"The objects appear to be rough and aged but at the same time the wooden relief tells another story."

See all our stories about Kai Linke »

See also:

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Roots by Kai Linke	Mirror Chairs by Kai Linke	Movie interview with Kai Linke

The post Blasted Vase and Side Table by Kai Linke appeared first on Dezeen.

DezeenTV: the next movie in our series of Dezeentalks at [D3] Design Talents features designer Kai Linke of Frankfurt talking us through his selection of eclectic images including a dog covered in snowballs and the long wait involved when growing chairs from plant roots.

Click on the symbol in the bottom right of the video player above to view the movie in full-screen HD.
Can’t see the movie? Click here.

See also: our earlier story on Linke's Roots project, growing plant roots into the shape of furniture (published January 2010)

More information about the talks here. Keep an eye out for more Dezeentalks at [D3] Design Talents interviews over the coming weeks…

Watch all the Dezeentalks at [D3] Design Talents »
See all our stories from Cologne 2010 »
Watch all our movies »

See also:

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Dezeentalks at [D3] Design Talents: Benjamin Hubert	Dezeentalks at D[3] Design Talents: Gabrielle Ammann	Dezeentalks at D[3] Design Talents: GamFratesi

The post Dezeentalks at [D3] Design Talents:
Kai Linke appeared first on Dezeen.

Cologne 2010: Frankfurt designer Kai Linke is working on a project to grow furniture from plant roots.

Linke explained the project, called Roots, at the Dezeentalks at [D3] Design Talents in Cologne last week; his experiments so far involve cultivating fast-growing plants such as grass, cress, bulbs and bamboo and chanelling their roots into a miniature chair-shaped mould.

Once the roots have completely filled the mould it is removed, leaving a scale model of a piece of furniture.

This exploration is the first stage of a long term project, which Linke hopes will result in a full size chair made of roots.

We'll post the movies from the Dezeentalks soon, including Linke interviewed by Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs.

See all our stories about Cologne 2010 in our special category.

Here's some more information from Linke:

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Deformation
Roots By Kai Linke

The idea referring to this concept arises out of the abstract conflict of deformations in nature.

Deformations can be caused by human hand consciously or by coincidence.

The intervention of humans into the growth of a plant can be described as deformation.

The human is the activator for a modified plant-growth. The plant is disturbed to develop itself in a natural way.

In different trials with help of grass, cress, bulbs, bamboo and hyacinths the rooting-growths was analysed.

The roots were channelled into shapes in different culture mediums until they filled those shapes completely.

After the roots have conquered the whole space – similar to a plant in a pot that is too small – the shape has been taken away.

Remaining are the roots, formed into the shapes of stools and tables.

The material wood, in this case root wood is forced already during it’s growth into a desired shape and not as usual by human deforming of the outside to the material into the desired shape.

This concept is depending a natural circumstance such as: weather, water dung, potting soil and the paste in which the root fills the form.

The above-mentioned plant groups are suitable for trials in smaller measures. In a long-term experiment – that will be going on for years – trials will be observed in a measure of 1 by 1. Result out of this will be the “Root Chair”.

The post Roots by Kai Linke appeared first on Dezeen.

Frankfurt designer Kai Linke has created a collection of furniture by manipulating the archetypal plastic garden chair.

Parts of the chairs have been mirrored to create symmetrical forms.

"Due to the fact that some of the chairs are hard or nearly impossible to use as normal seating objects it allows many thoughts in between,"says Linke.

Here's some text from the designer:

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Mirror Chairs
By Kai Linke / 2009

“Mirror Chairs” is an edition that so far includes four different chairs. The general idea behind this session was deformation. In detail the strange new forms that occurred by using different camera effects fascinated me.

These new objects I rebuilt with monoblock chairs which I am addicted to for years anyway. The new-formed chairs get a totally different meaning and each one of them has it’s own very special identity which sometimes even appears poetic like the two chairs that seam to embrace themselves.

Photographer Kai Linke.

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