Dezeen Magazine

Muller van Severen designs rocking wire daybeds for Spanish summer house

Belgian design studio Muller van Severen has crafted curving loungers from wire netting as part of a furniture commission for one of the Solo Houses – a series of architect-designed dream homes in Spain (+ slideshow).

Muller van Severen designs rocking wire daybeds for Spanish summer house
Muller van Severen's curving loungers were commissioned for one of the Solo Houses in Spain by Office KGDVS

The designers worked with a stainless steel netting of two by two centimetre squares to create the daybeds, which they describe as looking "like a curled up mattress or a sheet of paper, waiting for someone to lie down".

Muller van Severen designs rocking wire daybeds for Spanish summer house
Muller van Severen describes the designs as "like a curled up mattress or a sheet of paper"

Muller van Severen created the furniture for a circular house by Belgian studio Office Kersten Geers David Van Severen (KGDVS), which will be completed later this year as one of a collection of dream homes badged the Solo Houses. Each of the houses is designed by a different architect.

Situated on a 100-hectare site in the hilly, wine-growing region of Matarraña, the natural surroundings of the Office KGDVS house inspired the form and transparency of the furniture.

Muller van Severen designs rocking wire daybeds for Spanish summer house
The furniture comes in plain stainless steel, and can be powder coated in white, mint green or red

"It's an incredible place entirely surrounded by nature," said designers Hannes Van Severen and Fien Muller. "We wanted to accentuate the openness of the place".

Muller van Severen designs rocking wire daybeds for Spanish summer house
The designers worked with a stainless steel netting of two by two centimetre squares

Muller van Severen created the low-lying loungers for the house's courtyard and swimming pond. Additional versions of the curved stanless-steel lattices are powder coated in white, green or red finishes.

Muller van Severen designs rocking wire daybeds for Spanish summer house
Muller van Severen said the pieces would be complemented by blankets, cushions or sheepskins

"You can see through the object, but still grasp the architecture," said the designers. "Transparency makes the objects present and absent at the same time."

"They don't impose themselves on you, while they continue to be sculptural."

Muller van Severen designs rocking wire daybeds for Spanish summer house
The loungers were designed for the house's courtyard and swimming pond

They said the pieces would be complemented with the addition of blankets, cushions or sheepskins.

Designer Hannes Van Severen's brother David is one of the co-founders of Office KGDVS.

Muller van Severen designs rocking wire daybeds for Spanish summer house
Muller van Severen designed for the Solo House by Office KGDVS

The Office KGDVS building will be among 12 Solo Houses built in the Matarraña region, two hours' south of Barcelona. Funded by French developer Christian Bourdais, the initiative gives 12 architects free rein to develop any design within a set budget.

The first house to be finished was a symmetrical concrete home by Chilean studio Pezo Von Ellrichshausen in 2013, with Sou Fujimoto's lattice of giant sticks and Johnston Marklee's circular design set to follow.

Muller van Severen designs rocking wire daybeds for Spanish summer house
Architects were given free rein to develop any design within a set budget for the Solo Houses

Muller Van Severen is exhibiting prototypes from the furniture's research phase as installations at Gallery Valerie Traan in Antwerp.

The design duo has been creating a furniture family for the gallery since 2011. Part of this collection, available under the design label valerie_objects, recently went on display inside a luxury apartment in Antwerp, located above the Graanmarkt 13 concept store.