this new shelving range was designed by naoto fukasawa for finnish manufacturer artek, and show at this year’s milan furniture fair. made of lacquered birch ladders and painted mdf shelves, with a nice little detail on the zinc and aluminium supports (see below image).

these are the imeüble shelves, by bjørn jørund blikstad. i had seen them a couple of months ago on the cover of wallpaper magazine, and was intrigued. as a fan of optical illusions and new storage solutions, it really caught my eye. the colours too, work really well together.

this is moving mondrian, by vladimír ambroz. the white frame is made from corian, and the doors and drawers can be moved around inside it as the user wishes. this seems like the kind of thing i shouldn’t like at all, but i really do. more so, in fact, every time i see it!

via dezeen

i saw this on designboom, and loved the process involved. mdfo is a range of mdf experiments by israeli designer oron ohayon, using mdf and hot water. from the article:

he produced 3 pieces of furniture that are made from MDF, wrapped with a flexible coating that swells with the board. the table legs were inserted into the table board corners then dipped in hot water. both the chest and shelves were produced using the same technique.

what i like best, as i have said, is the process. using the properties of mdf, and what happens to it when exposed to water. usually it is a problem; i remember when one of my tables got drenched it lost it’s smooth straightness, but this makes use of that in a controlled way.

it also reminds me of when i was on a wooden rowing boat last week, which began to fill with water at first. i told my housemate that we were going to sink, but he said to just wait. sure enough, 10 minutes later, the boat stopped flooding, as the wood had expanded in the water. very clever stuff.

link to designboom article