At this year's IMM Cologne, Italian furniture design company Lema collaborated with Raw Edges designers Yael Mer and Shay Alkalay who founded their studio in 2007 with the aim of creating soulful and yet, ironic, objects (such as this unusual commissioned piece, to create a unique piece.
Lema, who has long created shelving systems and bookcases for the home has been closely following the evolution of market and consumer needs, especially given the evolution of the library in a modern world that is increasingly oriented towards paperbacks and e-books. Yael and Shay have worked on the concept of the book as an object and as material, which transforms its function and reinvents itself. From these two companies comes a new collaborative effort: The Booken, which is simultaneously a table, shelf and library.
"We were inspired by the fact that people do not re-read the novels that are so often on the shelves," says Raw Edges. "Most books are usually read once and not re-read, and then we thought, why not use the volumes as if they have a plan? Of course you can always remove the book and read it, but at the same time the books take on a new role. "
And that is why the designers chose the name Booken. In English, the suffix 'en' applies in furnishing the material names to identify those with which objects are made. Following this concept, the book becomes the constituent material.
The essence of Booken is captured in two parallel tracks supported by legs on which rest several wooden slats that echo the classic form of the bookmark. The books are literally "hanging" transforming the library from a vertical element to a horizontal element.
"For us it was definitely a challenge from the conceptual point of view," says Angelo Meroni, chairman of Lema. "But at the same time a fun and cool project that brings us closer to a different audience giving us, after collaborating with young designers like Nendo and Giopato & Coombes, a way to look at the future of design and creativity in the field of furniture."
Raw Edges Design Studio
Lema
source: Archiportale
The Booken Is A Table, A Shelf and a Library In One.
Pantone Chopstix and Hangers? The Mood Food Collection and More New Products by Room Copenhagen for Pantone Universe.
As the Pantone Universe product lines continue to grow, more options for color lovers permeate the marketplace. In partnership with Pantone, Room Copenhagen has developed a new collection of colorful products under the Pantone Universe name that include items for food prep, food service and home organization. 
Keeping in line with the Pantone color scheme, the design and product development are nurtured in close collaboration involving the ROOM COPENHAGEN design team, Pantone and the world-renowned Knud Holscher Design studio.
'Good Mood Food' is the name of their line of new products suited for serving everything from breakfast to sushi and more with various sized food trays, dipping bowls, and even chopstix!
Other Pantone Universe food prep and tableware from Room Copenhagen includes three sizes of bowls, two kinds of cups, a butter board, cutting boards, a serving tray and serving utensils.
TABLEWARE
Pantone Bowls:
Pantone Cups:
Pantone Egg Cups:
Stackable trays for food or household items can be purchased as a set of 11 or individually:
Pantone Chopstix:
Pantone Placemats:
FOOD PREP
Pantone Serving Utensils:
Pantone Butter Board:
Pantone Cutting Boards:
ORGANIZATION
Also available in the Pantone Universe collection from Room Copenhagen are the following organizational products.
Pantone Key and Mobile phone trays:
Pantone Credit Card Holders:
Pantone Hangers:
Buy Pantone Products By Room Copenhagen here
Lego-Like Recycling Containers from Flussocreativo.
Named LECO, these plastic recycling containers (patent pending) are designed to emulate giant Lego Bricks. Designed by the Italian industrial interior and graphic design company Flussocreativo, the project is described as follows:
Leco is an ecological station facility, young and colorful with a strong reference playful etched in collective memory.
Containers designed for separate collection, composed of five elements in polymer of which two are for aluminium and glass, respectively blue and green, and two, of larger size, for paper (white) and plastic (yellow).
The originality of the form of Leco deviates from the classic collection container for trying to involve the user through two major aspects: the liking for aesthetics and modular functionality.
Leco is clearly a reference to the “Lego”, a world game that, since you’re a child, increases the ability to manage and combine small items, stimulating creativity.
Hence the desire to create, even if for a delicate issue such as environmental conservation, the opportunity to interact with the containers in a nice way, overcoming aesthetic and formal obstacles.
The result of that vision has led us to create a collector who had the power to attract people, not only for its use, but also for its ability of solving space problems and induce to the practice of daily separate collection.
Specifically, each container has an external shell with both extremities channel into assembly, that recall, in a very intuitive way, the handiness of interlocking between elements typical of the game “Lego”; while in the front, there is folding door designed to accommodate the bag.
Leco is a new, exciting and colorful solution to try to improve the aptitude to recycle in a spontaneous way, by giving a daily aid to the environment.
via Designboom
