Modern World Awards 2011

After a decde of publishing the world's best and brightest designs, we thought it was high time we slapped our seal of approval on the new products and furniture we love. Thus the Modern World Awards were born. The Dwell editors chose five entries in the categories Play, Eat, Create, Work and Live because they sit squarely where form, function, and innovation unite. Our entire staff voted on the winners, our readers voted on the People's Choice award champ, and then we exhibited them all at Dwell on Design. Here is the complete list of nominees.

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  Bike Shelf

  • Designed by: Chris Brigham
  • Made by: Knife and Saw
  • Price: $270.00

  For the bibliophilic bike lover who has everything but space, this sturdy wall-mounted shelf will solve all sorts of storage issues, keeping hardbacks on hand and your beloved velocipede off the floor.

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  Come and Draw Table

  • Designed by: Tian Tang Design
  • Price: $502.00-629.00

  When kids and crayons get together, drawing on the furniture is generally not encouraged. This table, however, has a very clever top that's composed of paper layers. When the page has been completely covered with doodles, it's time to tear it off and let your little one start fresh with a new sheet. Clever stuff.

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  A7 Bicycle by Public Bikes

  • Price: $550.00-1,000.00

  In terms of smart transit options, little fits a city better than a handy bicycle. Or so goes the thinking of Rob Forbes, founder of Design Within Reach and a new venture, Public Bikes. Though these handsome rides, inspired by the stripped-down functionalism of Dutch city bikes, will easily get you from point A to point B, Forbes is as quick to point out that they are as much about urbanism and responsible transportation as they are about chain guards and fetching frames.

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  Jambox

  • Designed by: Yves Béhar
  • Made by: Jawbone
  • Price: $199.99

  We’ve had it with cords tethering our tunes. And despite a boombox’s street cred, our cassette collection ended with the Traveling Wilburys. Enter this Bluetooth-enabled, rechargeable, eminently portable loudspeaker that need not be handled with care.

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  Circle Playhouse

  • Designed by: Gitane Royce
  • Price: $1,299.00

  A finalist in the 2011 Dwell Modern World Awards! Inspired by the timeless architectural lines of an old New England barn or Scandinavian fishing cottage the Circle house is an international ode to the gable-roofed house

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  Fyrkat Picnic Charcoal Grill

  • Made by: Bodum
  • Price: $50.00-70.00

  You don’t need a big backyard to get fired up on grilling. Case in point: Bodum’s Fyrkat Picnic Charcoal Grill. It’s a modern, playful update to the quintessential mini grill—the Weber Smokey Joe—and its streamlined base and array of color choices makes it an even better pick. The silicon lid handle stays cool even as the enamel coating heats up. The side clips snap in place to connect the top and base, making it easy to carry post-grilling. Its compact size makes it perfect for small spaces.

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  Trattoria Table and Chairs

  • Designed by: Jasper Morrison
  • Made by: Magis

  Jasper Morrison’s Trattoria collection makes us want nothing more than to plate some prosciutto, pour a glass of Prosecco, and take a seat. Inspiring visions of salumerias, the Tavolo table and Sedia chairs stand up just as well in a cafe as in a kitchen. Both pieces feature frames made of natural solid beech. The table is topped with HPL laminate; Sedia’s seat and backrest are made of polycarbonate—and are available in green, yellow, red, blue, and brown.

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  Alodia Stool

  • Made by: Cappellini

  The Alodia stool strikes a perfect equilibrium between its tubular base and laser-cut steel seat. Its supporting legs reach back for balance, and then cut across the front to serve as a footrest. The cantilevered seat comes in two heights: the 27.5-inch-tall version slips perfectly under a counter; its 31.5-inch-tall companion makes its home at the bar. American designer Todd Bracher’s first work for Italian manufacturer Cappellini, the Alodia is a perfect perch in white, anthracite (charcoal), mustard (yellow), blue, and green. 

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  Mormor Tableware

  • Made by: Normann Copenhagen
  • Price: $17.75-75.75

  Young Danish designer Gry Fager took cues from the past for her first collection for Normann Copenhagen. Her Mormor dishware evokes the spirit of a classic kitchen with its white and blue washcloth pattern. The collection name itself harks back to days of yore; in Danish, “mormor” means grandmother. The set comprises ceramic bowls, plates, cups, buttering boards, eggcups, a milk jug, a sugar bowl, and a decanter with either the Mormor blue pattern or all white ribbed finished. We can’t wait to see what Fager will cook up next.

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  Reversed Volumes

  • Price: $42.00

  Few products show the source and inspiration of their designs as clearly as the Reversed Volumes bowls by Vienna-based studio mischer’traxler. To create the pieces, designers Katharina Mischer and Thomas Traxler fill with a ceramic powder the space between an outer shell mold and a fruit or vegetable—apples, oranges, cantaloupe, and cauliflower to name a few. The powder hardens into a food-safe ceramic and when the edible is taken away, the result is a form with a fossil-like void creating a bowl. The beauty and simplicity of the pieces makes us say yay to these fruit bowls.

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  Softwall

  • Made by: molo

  Stephanie Forsythe and Todd MacAllen, founders of the Vancouver-based firm Molo Design, have created the ideal room divider: a freestanding and expandable partition made of fire-retardant paper and textiles. The Softwall's honeycomb structure allows the material to expand from its compressed form to up to twenty-five feet long. With the recent addition of integrated LEDs, the Softwall can become a luminous sculpture, adding private spaces, ambiance, and illumination to your house in one fell (curving) swoop.

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  Suita Sofa

  • Made by: Vitra
  • Price: $6,340.00-7,375.00

  The modular Suita Sofa, designed by Antonio Citterio in collaboration with Vitra, is almost endlessly customizable. Choose from components including one armed seats, two armed seats, a chaise shape, a desk/tray/shelf along the back, headrests, and ottomans to create the perfect design for your space—be it a sprawling sectional for a spacious loft or a compact couch for a small apartment.

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  Boost Boxes

  • Price: $29.99-39.99

  These days, it seems like everyone is busy saving the world. Using recycled, sustainably sourced materials is de rigeur for designers and manufacturers as consumers are becoming savvier about the importance of product pedigree. There’s a disconnect, however, between the standards we hold our purchases to and the ones to which we keep ourselves accountable (hands up if you’ve switched out every incandescent in your house for an LED). Common sense seems to be superseded by, at best, confusion over where to begin and what to buy and, at worst, apathy.

   

   
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  Neutra House Numbers

  • Made by: Heath Ceramics

  Sausalito-based ceramics company Heath together with type foundry House Industries recently released these eye-catching address plates, emblazoned with fonts designed by Richard Neutra and Charles and Ray Eames.

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  The Dots

  • Made by: Muuto

  From the Danish design company Muuto, this quintet of overscaled pegs in different sizes—made of oak or ash, and all resembling wooden drawer pulls—are at once very simple and very clever, sized between 9 and 17 centimeters wide. You can mount them on the wall in whatever artful (or inartful) arrangement you like; once hung, their softly rounded shape will keep your coat, scarves, and hats in good shape and attractively displayed.

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  111 Navy Chair

  • Made by: Emeco

  Modeled on the classic Emeco 1006 Navy chair of 1944, but made from 111 recycled plastic bottles, the 111 Navy chair marries iconic form with a highly progressive brand of manufacturing. Made of rPET (Recycled Polyethylene Terephthalate, essentially plastic bottles) and a mixture of pigment and glass fibers, the 111 Navy chair is strong, light, and comes in six colors. Recycling has always been in Emeco’s DNA: the original 1006 was to be made with 80% recycled aluminum. It's fitting that over a half-century later they're still turning out great, eco-minded design.

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  Kelvin LED

  • Designed by: Antonio Citterio, Toan Nguyen
  • Price: $396

  No need to touch this cast-aluminum desk lamp to turn it off or on, when using the Force will do: Hover your hand above the square head of the Kelvin LED—a sleek update on the conical silhouette of Antonio Citterio’s original Kelvin design—and Jedi sensors will operate the LEDs.

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  Bluff City Lights

  • Made by: Roll & Hill

  This pendant from designer Jonah Takagi reminds us of the caged lights your mechanic hooks to the underside of your busted engine than something you’d hang over your dining table. Just goes to show how a bit of formal sophistication, a little powder coating, and a classy copper socket can turn what feels pedestrian into something revelatory.

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  Studio Desk

  • Made by: Bluelounge Design
  • Price: $599.95

  The Studio Desk by BlueLounge holds the simple solution for much of your desktop clutter. A secret compartment within the desk houses all the cords, plugs, and the like that typically manage to snake their way around the stapler and through the task lamp. Not only do we love the BlueLounge’s clean lines and simple white desktop (with a removable black mat), but we’re enamored with just how cleverly the elongated slot at the back corals our cables, gives us space for a power strip, and then sends but a single cord down to an awaiting outlet. 

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  Shelving System

  • Designed by: Naoto Fukasawa
  • Made by: Artek

  “I have always associated Aalto’s designs, which highlight the graciousness of plain wood, with square building blocks,” says designer Naoto Fukasawa. His birch-laddered modular shelves complement the Finnish brand’s clean-lined collection.

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  Mangas Rug

  • Made by: Gan by Gandia Blasco

  It was love at first sight for us with Mangas, a collection of rugs by Patricia Urquiola for Gan that redefine the chunky knit. Translated into Spanish, the name means "sleeve," and the oversized strips of 100% virgin wool—knotted and woven into a series of patterns in a variety of colors—does mimic the look (and feel) of the most comfortable of sweaters. 

   

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  Ernest Zig Zag Pouffe

  • Designed by: Donna Wilson
  • Made by: SCP
  • Price: $542

  Donna Wilson does textiles like no other designer out there today. Ernest is one of a pouffe trio—Frank and Henry complete the threesome—that showcase the Scottish lass's take on a rotund wooly jumper.

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  Lighthouse Lamp

  • Designed by: Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec
  • Made by: Established & Sons, Venini

  Were you lost at sea, there could be no finer beacon than this brilliant new light from the brothers Bouroullec. The delicately molded hand-blown glass globe perches atop the industrially produced base—with truly balanced results.

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  LC2 Color-Chair

  • Designed by: Le Corbusier
  • Made by: Cassina

  The color of this Corbu-Perriand-Jeanneret-designed LC2 came far after the fact, as Cassina reissued the 1928 black-and-steel-classic this year in a series of bold tones.The new hues may not be to everyone's taste, but it's most likely unanimous that the chair itself is still a masterpiece.